Mike Jones was very fast at Wakefield Park during testing

Quick chat with Mike Jones

We recently caught up with Mike Jones while the championship lead was testing at Wakefield Park. Rain disrupted the second day of the two-day test that was planned last week, but the 28-year-old took part in lap testing again this week as he continued to refine the YRT YZF-R1M ahead of the third round of the Mi-Bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Superbike Championship at the Goulburn site later this month.

Trevor Hedge: A productive day?

Mike Jones: “Yes, looking at the Yamaha R1 for me is just… I am adapting very well to it, I feel quite comfortable in the car. I think this is going to be the ultimate test, to go off a track that I know very well and am very familiar with (QLD Track), and take this pack to another lap and go straight here, we running as low as 57 seconds and really only half a second out of my personal best here. So for me that’s a really big achievement because we lost the first half of today, the weather conditions were pretty drizzly and wet. So in the two sessions we had – you know, my crew leader, Dylan – we had a plan, to be honest, we worked through pretty much everything and had a real direction. clarity for me. Obviously we’re going to try and do the test tomorrow, but the forecast is for rain. If that can’t happen, we’ve got a really good direction for the race. ”

Trev: In the first session where you had some dry laps, you looked really fast from the start, so it doesn’t seem like the Queensland track won’t be one?

Mike Jones: “I don’t think so, *laughs* only time will tell, until we get to the race and put in a proper effort. The first few sessions here are pretty talkative, aren’t they? If you turn up and you are quite slow right away… but if you turn up and fast right away, you know that everything is in the ballpark and you feel quite comfortable. You can’t do that if the bike isn’t performing well and you don’t feel comfortable riding it. “

Trev: Did you try a different tire on your last lesson there in the cold?

Mike Jones: “We had two Pirelli control tires here for testing today and we backed both of those tyres, one better for heat and one slightly better for cooler temperatures, they I just want to see how that affects us. motorcycle. Because if this is the kind of conditions we’re going to be in, in race conditions, in a couple of weeks we need to know what our options for tires are. “

The third round of the 2022 Mi-Bike Motorcycle Insurance Australian Motorcycle Championship will take place the weekend of April 23-24 at Wakefield Park, Goulburn, NSW.

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