After a good start to the BSB season, PR Racing rider Luke Jones was keen to continue his run of good fortune around the fastest track on the BSB calendar, and one of Luke’s favourite circuits, at Thruxton in Hampshire for Round Two of the BSB Championship.

An early error by Jones in Friday’s first BSB free practice session of the day saw the 21 year old hit the tarmac at over 130 mph, completely destroying his R1 machine and damaging his left hand. Under the new One Bike Rule, Luke was unable to have a replacement machine, so missed out on the second free practice of the day. The team had to work throughout the remainder of the day rebuilding the YZF R1 ready for Saturday's Free Practice 3 and qualifying sessions.

Friday’s high speed crash left a large hole in one glove and hand, plus it completely destroyed Luke’s leathers. Due to the ban on air flights this meant his new PR outfit was still sitting on a runway awaiting shipment. Squeezing into an old set, Jones was soon suffering circulation problems in his forearms, which added to his arm pump from Round One and compounded by his hand injury, hampered his ability to muscle the 200 bhp R1 around this unforgiving circuit.

Saturday saw Luke complete only five laps in Free Practice 3, but the gutsy PR rider was out again that afternoon and managed to qualify in P24 for Race One in a time of 1:17.624 with an average speed of 109.26 mph around the 2.35 mile circuit.

Race One saw Luke’s bad fortunes of the weekend continue. During lap 7, the front end of his machine folded sending him crashing to the floor for a second time that weekend, but the BSB rookie still managed to lap 19th fastest, therefore, starting from the fifth row of the grid for race two. Throughout Race Two, Luke struggled with arm pump on this demanding track but managed to stay out of trouble and brought his bike home in P21.

After a difficult weekend Luke commented. “This round has been a real test. After the crash on Friday, which was a result of being out of position whilst still trying to maintain cornering speed just before the complex (turn two), I wanted to reward the team by adding to our championship tally. I would like to thank all the guys back at the garage for an excellent job getting the bike ready for qualifying, as I completely destroyed the bike, I even managed to total the fuel tank.”

When asked about the afternoon of racing he said, “I can’t explain the crash in race one, the front just slipped away low siding during lap 7. At the start of Race Two I was ruffed up for most of the first half of lap one, it seemed everybody was banging into each other and I kept backing off to avoid the guys in front. Thruxton is the most demanding circuit but I have learnt so much about how the bike handles. I now need to rest my arms and get ready for our local circuit at Oulton Park.”

End.