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Jones Champion in Two Countries



Gareth Jones is the new Dutch Superbike Champion.

The young Australian who so endeared himself to Kiwi race fans when he raced away with the New Zealand 600cc sports production crown last summer, is now a national champion in two countries that are not his own.

The 22-year-old Yamaha ace from Canungra, in Queensland, took the Dutch title after holding a 27-point lead with a race to spare, despite coming to grief at the penultimate round of the 2009 series at Assen on Sunday.

With two national title to his credit, as well as a stunning 12th place in the IDM German Superbike Championship, in which he scored 62 points from only three rounds completed, and  a top 10 finish in the FIM Superstock 1000 round at Assen, and being named Dutch superbikes "Rookie of the Year", it has been a remarkable year for Jones.

And Jones achieved all of this on a three-year-old model Yamaha R1.

Jones qualified third ion the grid at Sunday's 11th round of the Dutch series at Assen and then converted that qualifying position into first place at turn one, establishing a lead only to be overtaken soon afterwards by rival Peter Politiek.

Then disaster struck. As he entered turn five, Jones' rear tyre unexpectedly lost grip and the race was over for Jones. His Yamaha bounced and spectacularly burst into flames.

Fortunately the race result didn't matter because the championship was already secured, but a frustrated Jones said afterwards “I wanted to finish the championship with a win in this race but it wasn't to be".

"I still don't know what happened, Peter (Politiek) passed me and I remember thinking 'take it easy there is plenty of time to get it back', then the rear wheel let go and I was flying through the air with the burning wreckage of the bike. It wasn't exactly the fireworks display and BBQ that I had in mind."

And so the Dutch adventure came to an end with one last race in an unforgettable 2009 season in Europe and then he will be moving on to target the German IDM championship for next season.

"I can now look forward to one last race in Assen in two weeks and then getting back to Australia and New Zealand and training for next year in Europe."


Final 2009 Dutch Superbike Championships standings:

Jones 197
Schouten 170
Vermonden 99
Schalken 93
Withag 89
van Kerkhoven 89
Rea 84
Winkel 61


Credit: Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com