Luke Jones, a local motorbike racer was at Donnington Park on the weekend of May 27th, 28th and 29th for the UK round of the World Superbikes Championship.

Luke was riding for a Dutch team ‘Agro On-Benjan’ in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup. The team needed a rider to replace Bryan Staring, their regular rider who was injured recently in a crash. Luke was approached by the team manager and accepted the chance to ride in a World Class Series on a Kawasaki ZX-10R.

There was free practice on Friday and Luke used this to build his confidence with the more powerful bike than the Triumph 675 he rides in the BSB series.

His times improved and he was 21st quickest after the two sessions.

Luke improved again on the Saturday in qualifying and was 17th quickest overall out of 35 riders.

The race on Sunday was run over 15 laps. Luke was 13th on lap one and went up to 11th on lap four. By lap 13 he was in 10th place and he was still in this position when he crossed the finishing line.

The Agro On-Benjan team were delighted with Luke’s result and said that he was focused on a top result, “the Englishman made a good start and continuous lap times brought him on a wonderful 10th place.”

They added:?“A nice performance, that was rewarded with a start again for Luke during the next round at Misano, Italy, on June 17th-19th.”