ValMoto race update

Date: July 1, 2004

Knockhill race report
Atrocious weather conditions at round eight of the British Supersport Championship made riding extremely difficult for the second consecutive round of the 2004 series this weekend at Knockhill.
The Scottish round of the championship is renowned for being hit by rain but even that knowledge was not enough to prepare the Supersport competitors for what they faced at the short circuit north of the border.
Craig Jones was unable to improve his qualifying after Saturday’s schedule was ended prematurely due to heavy downpours of rain. The second session was cancelled due to adverse track conditions, which meant that grid positions for Sunday’s race were determined by Saturday’s morning session.
Disappointingly, this left Jones and his Triumph ValMoto Daytona 600 outside of the top ten in 14 th place, with no chance to improve on the position ahead of the race and a lot of hard work to put in on Sunday to catch up with the front runners.
The wintery weather continued for the races on Sunday, forcing many of the riders to play it safe for the wet 23-lap race. But 19-year-old Jones, a competent wet rider managed to battle his way through the field.
Jones charged from a 14 th-placed start to a respectable eighth place finish on the yellow union jack-liveried Daytona 600 in a race that saw 13 riders bow out with DNFs. The points-scoring finish meant that Jones moved from eighth overall in the championship standings to joint seventh with Leon Camier, who failed to see the race out.
“I’m happy to have finished and picked up some points, considering the conditions and the disadvantage that we had at the start of the race,” said Jones. “It would have been too ambitious to hope for a podium finish after starting 14 th in a wet race. Finishing eighth allowed me to move up the standings, so I’m looking to Mallory Park now to get back onto the podium and prove what the team is capable of. I’m confident that we will get a good result if we get some better weather at the next round.”
Team Manager Jack Valentine said: “We thought that the biggest challenge at Knockhill would be tyre selection, but the constant wet weather made that easy. The Daytona 600 and Pirelli tyres performed well under the circumstances and Craig did well to pull back a few places for a top ten finish. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the turning point that we had hoped for, but with five rounds left to go, there is still time to turn things around”
Race result:
1. P. Young (Honda) 21:56.004
2. K. Harris (Honda) +9.226
3. M. Laverty (Ducati) +14.689
4. P. Riba (Kawasaki) +20.875
5. T. Sykes (Suzuki) +21.005
6. K. Murphy (Honda) +25.234
7. C. Crutchlow (Honda) +28.888
8. C. Jones (Triumph ValMoto) +39.673
9. L. Jackson (Honda) +40.033
10. B. Grant (Honda) +42.484

World Supersport Championship
Round six: Silverstone, UK
Sunday 13 June 2004
Race report

Battling with the best

Triumph ValMoto's second foray into international competition had a positive conclusion at Silverstone. The team's teenage rider Craig Jones scored his - and Triumph's - first ever World Supersport Championship points with a strong 12th place finish in a race against theworld's best bikes and riders.

Jones' race result was a solid achievement - especially considering that he was forced to start from the fifth row of the grid. A successful first qualifying session, had the #81 Daytona 600 in 13th place, with further improvement likely. However, a minor technical problem meant that Jones had to go out on his spare bike - which had different settings - for the second session. As a result, the final minutes saw him slip further down the order instead of improving his times.
However, Jones refused to be disheartened by his unfortunate grid position of 19th and clawed back as many places as possible during the race. He put in the fifth fastest lap and was able to pass nine other riders, including former World Champion Stéphane Chambon and hold tenth place for some time.

In the closing stages of the race, Chambon and Max Neukirchner slipped past. Nevertheless, Jones remained calm and held fast to bring the Union Jack emblazoned Triumph home in 12th place, in front of the British crowd and ahead of many World Supersport regulars.
"I'm pleased with 12th considering that I started pretty far down the grid," said Jones. "It's a shame about qualifying, because we'd have been on for a really good result, but the race itself was encouraging.
"The Triumph ValMoto Daytona 600 definitely has the pace and it was good to score my first world championship points, so now I'm looking forward to the rest of the British championship and also to my next World Supersport race at Brands Hatch."

Team Manager Jack Valentine was pleased with his young rider's
performance amid such stiff competition.

"First qualifying went perfectly to plan," he said. "Jonesy was building up his speed as we got the bike dialled in, but unfortunately we had a problem with his number one bike in the final session and he had to switch to his second bike. This didn't leave us with any time to transfer the good settings across and he couldn't get comfortable enough to improve his times any further."

"We had the bike set up how he liked for the race and I think he did really well. He was lapping a second faster than in qualifying and rode professionally to get a good result.
"We're racing in the British championship at Brands Hatch this weekend and the data we get there will be very useful for when we compete on the same circuit during the European World Supersport round in August."

Result:
1. F. Foret (Yamaha) 37:33.642;
2. K. Muggeridge (Honda) +0.043;
3. B. Parkes (Honda) +0.303;
4. L. Lanzi (Ducati) +0.763;
5. K. Curtain (Yamaha) +2.598;
6. J. VD Goorbergh (Yamaha) +3.429;
7. P. Riba (Kawasaki) +9.255;
8. S. Charpentier (Honda) +9.448;
9. A. Corradi (Honda) +20.385;
10. S. Chambon (Suzuki) +20.605;
12. C. Jones (Triumph ValMoto) +30.323

Source: www.triumphvalmoto.com