Jones stays on track amid tight title battle

AMMANFORD’S Lewis Jones enjoyed a fine weekend at the Knockhill circuit in Scotland.

- ROGER GALE

The Triumph rider endured rain in Friday's practice sessions, but he and his team concentrated on getting a good setup for the wet conditions.

He set a first session lap time of 58.925 seconds and was slightly slower in the second run with a best of 1.014 as the wind picked up.

Saturday’s qualifying was dry but the sprint race was wet again, so the team made changes to accommodate for the dry session. Jones managed a better time of 52.046 seconds, good enough for 16th in the session, and a combined qualifying best of fourth place in the Supersport Cup Championship.

Rain returned just before the start of the Sprint race, meaning a rapid switch of dry tyres for wets. But it turned out to be no more than a sharp shower.

As the race progressed the track dried quickly, so the tyre combination wasn’t giving Jones optimum grip for fast laps, but the Welshman fought on to take third position in the Supersport Cup.

For the Feature Race there was to be no improvement in the weather, and by warm-up the track was still partially wet but with a drying race line.