Mike Jones heads to Portugal on the back of podium success in Germany

Mike Jones - Image by Geebee Images — Mike Jones – Image by Geebee Images

After securing his first ever podium in the Superstock 1000 European Championship when the series visited Germany’s EuroSpeedway Lausitz recently, young Queenslander Mike Jones is ready to resume action at Portimão (Portugal) for the third-to-last round of the FIM series.

The iconic Portuguese track, which is back in the calendar after a one-year absence, saw Mike Jones race there as wild-card in 2012 in the same class, finishing in 16th position.

With three rounds to go, Ducati teammate Rinaldi and Jones are respectively first (115 points) and sixth (49 points) in the championship.

Mike Jones - Image by GeeBee — Mike Jones – Image by GeeBee

Mike Jones (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team #57)

“I’m quite confident after our strong performance at Lausitz, which finally brought us to the podium. We want to continue this form at Portimão, where we did a really good test at the beginning of the year. Like I’ve been saying, the improvements I made with my riding style should allow us to race at the front in Portugal as well. It’s a really tricky track, it’s quite difficult to ride quickly and consistently there. You definitely need to bring your A game. I like it, I’ve been there a few times before and I think this will help me. I have good understanding of the track. I think it’ll be a very exciting weekend”.

Superstock 1000 Race Results Proseccco DOC German Round Rinaldi – Ducati Jones – Ducati +2.162 Tamburini – Yamaha +10.407 — Superstock 1000 Race Results Proseccco DOC German Round
1. Rinaldi – Ducati
2. Jones – Ducati +2.162
3. Tamburini – Yamaha +10.407

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team #12)

“I really like the Portimão track: it has a unique character, it’s full of elevation changes and in some parts of it you really need to be brave. Unfortunately, the tarmac is not in pristine conditions, so you have to be careful. That said, I’ve always been fast in Portugal. We did some tests there but it was a long time ago so I don’t think it will have an impact over the racing weekend. Still, we were competitive there in the winter. We increased our advantage in the last round, but we’ll need to simply stay focused and score the best possible result without making too many calculations. We’ll see where we’re at once the race is over”.