NATHAN Jones is gunning for the coveted 2017 Victorian Superbike title when the opening round of the 2017 Pirelli Motul Victorian Road Racing Championships kicks-off at the State Motorcycle Sports Complex at Broadford this weekend, April 1-2.
Nathan, 32, narrowly lost out to his younger brother Tyson Jones and the Superbike title by just four points in the last round of a four-round VRRC last November.
“I’m really looking forward to the championship being over four rounds on three different tracks: Broadford, Phillip Island and Winton. It’s really good that we’re going to Winton this year,” Nathan said.
Nathan recently competed at the second round of the 2017 Hartwell Motorcycle Club Championships at Mac Park in South Australia on March 11-12. Jones won four races in the Over 600 Expert class on a Kawasaki ZX10R 1000 as well as achieving a personal best time in the Greg Bailey – a 1:11.600 on Lap 11.
“I was pretty happy with how the weekend went. I also raced in the Thunderbike class and won all four of those races on my Dad’s KTM RC8 1000 so it was good to get back into it. It didn’t feel like I had been off the bike for about three months,” Nathan recalled.
“As always, I’ll be looking forward to competing against my brother. He’ll be the toughest competition again. Tyson wasn’t going to race this year but he’ll be back.
“I want to take the title back off him. The ultimate goal will be to win the championship and I want to be consistent with quick times that we achieved last year,” Nathan, who last won a Victorian Superbike title at Broadford in 2015, added.
Tyson Jones, however, is keen to defend his title. “It’ll be good to get back on the bike as I haven’t ridden since the last round of the VRRC in November,” Tyson said.
“I would like to defend my title. It’s going to be pretty hard to do it again. In terms of preparation for Round 1, I have been all over the place in terms of whether I would even race due to work and finances. I definitely want to back it up again so we’ll see how we go,” Tyson added.
“It is always good fun racing against Nathan because we’ve done it for so long and we trust each other in what we’re going to do. Touch wood, we haven’t made contact on the track yet,” the 30-year-old added.
Nathan would like to thank 3J Racing, Race Center, Cykel, Morwell Kawasaki, MSA Custom Rides, Rated R Parts, Ricondi, Mornington Motorcycles, Emtek Racing, and Mototrak Accessories. Tyson would also like to thank 3J Racing, Race Centre, Pirelli, and Cykel for sponsoring him again this season.
The opening round of the 2017 Pirelli Motul Victorian Road Racing Championships takes place on the State Motorcycle Sports Complex at Broadford this weekend on April 1-2. For more information please visit: https://prestonmotorcycleclubinc.wildapricot.org/Victorian-Road-Racing-Championship-2017.