HEREFORD-based motorbike racer Luke Jones was left reflecting on a frustrating qualifying run in the latest round of the Superstock 1000 series.
Jones and the Highsparks Ducati team headed to Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire and the world famous mountain section, hoping to continue the good form that saw him score a sixth place finish in the previous round at Thruxton, writes Tim Davies.
In the only wet practice session on Friday, things looked promising, as Jones set the second fastest time, just 0.279s back from Tyco BMWs Andy Reid.
The second session was then cancelled due to the bad weather and all eyes turned to the qualifying session on Saturday.
Things didn't go according to plan in the qualifying session, as problems saw Jones qualify a lowly 27th, some three seconds off pole-man and Championship leader Richard Coopers on his Buildbase Suzuki.
Raceday was dry, and Jones made good progress away from the line.
A safety car was required to retrieve Andy Reid's crashed BMW bike, which had come to rest in a dangerous place.
This helped close the field up to Jones' advantage.
Once the race restarted the Hereford rider was able to make his way up to 17th place at the finish, a gain of ten places from where he started.
Jones finished just two places away from the points scoring positions, missing out by just 0.3 seconds.
As the series heads to Oulton Park in early September for two races, Jones sits 16th in the Championship, but two good results there could see him move up a number of places in the table, as he is only 16 points away from Billy McConnell on the OMG Suzuki in 12th place.
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