Source: Supplied.

Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team’s Mike Jones managed an eighth-place result in the Misano round of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup (STK1000) on Sunday, matching his best result of the season so far.

The 23-year-old qualified an impressive fifth on-board his factory-supported Ducati Panigale R, then ran as high as second before eventually crossing the line in P8 at the conclusion of the two-part encounter.

“Most of the weekend has been good,” Jones reflected. “We had a strong qualifying, being close to pole position, but during the race I couldn’t quite run the pace of the guys at the front. At the restart, I was buried in carnage at the first corner and just tried to stay on the bike but got shuffled back. With only five laps left, I could only come back to eighth position, which isn’t a bad result, but I was expecting more after qualifying. We improved our speed, now we need to improve our overall pace.”

With five rounds complete in the 2017 season and four top 10 results to his credit, Jones is currently tied for 10th in the championship standings midway through the series with four rounds remaining.