In this week’s Race Recap, CycleOnline.com.au calls up Gareth Jones to talk us through his successful weekend at Zolder in Belgium for the second round of the IDM German Superbike Championship.

2013 marks Jones’ fourth full year in the category, and what he considers his best shot yet at the title in what is one of the world’s most competitive domestic Superbike championships. He’s contesting the season aboard the factory Yamaha Motor Germany mount, backed by Monster Energy.

Gareth Jones is settling into his seat on the Yamaha R1 well.

Thanks for talking to us, Gareth. You must now be considered an experienced hand in the IDM German Superbike Championship after four seasons. Do you feel like you’ve been able to start off the year strong on the Monster Energy Yamaha?

It’s four and a half, as I actually did part of the 2009 season here as well. Every year has been an upwards progression which has been really nice. I feel really strong this year and feel like we can really push to the top three positions in the title with the Yamaha Motor Germany team. You always as a rider want to go for the top spot but to finish in the top three would be a fantastic achievement and we’ll push all the way to the end of the year.

Talk us through the initial stages of your weekend at Zolder. What prior experience did you have there on the new R1, and how did you fare in practice and qualifying?

We had a small test there, it was only a one-day test the whole IDM paddock did, so we had a fairly reasonable setting which was always nice, but then so did everyone else. The weekend was going to be fairly fast from the get-go.

The first sessions on Friday were quite strong for us. We tried a couple of things with the bike and we knew we had reasonable race pace, but up until the race you don’t know what’s really going to happen. Quite a few guys were quick throughout Friday and through qualifying as well which is to be expected. We always have to focus on that race setup which we were fairly confident about. From there it was straight onto qualifying, it was going to be the difficult part.

From the results it seems like a number of the frontrunners got caught out as the conditions worsened. Fortunately you look like you got a lap in – can you tell us how that session played out?

Basically from looking at the weather forecast we realised that it was going to probably rain part-way through the first session, so we got on the track as quickly as possible. As it turns out I had two laps with just drizzle coming down onto the visor, and then some rain for the rest of the session.

Four or five riders crashed on that third lap and the rain was coming down on one side of the track. We played our cards right and really got out there and got a lap in straight away so that was a real positive. Then in the afternoon session it was drying out but there was still big puddles across the track which made it quite difficult. We didn’t even go out in that session – two laps for us was the basis of our qualifying.

Jones is a picture of focus on the grid prior to race start.

Like the Australian series you line up for a pair of feature Superbike races on the Sunday. Had the conditions improved from the previous day and how did the first race pan out?

The first race we knew was going to be wet. It had been raining quite a lot beforehand. What was a little difficult for me was that I’ve never actually ridden the R1 in the rain, and so I wasn’t even sure of the feeling of the bike in the rain, the traction control settings, all that sort of stuff. The guys just said ‘go out there and feel it’, and being on the front row, there was a good chance of being at the front of the field at turn one, and it just so turns out that I led the first lap, or maybe two, so I had to find that feeling pretty quickly to be honest.

I just pushed my way around the track, and just stayed consistent. We actually went for a fairly hard rear tyre, because there is quite a soft option from Dunlop in the rear wet, but we weren’t convinced that it was going to make the whole distance of 17 laps in the rain, even in the cool conditions. So we played a bit of a gamble on the grid and went for the harder tyre, and I was riding at a very consistent pace, and it was strong enough to stay at the front.

A couple of guys tried to come through and as soon as they passed, if they moved away a little bit then they crashed straight ahead of me, so I was kind of like, well we’re fairly well on the limit. It ended up being me and Damo [Damian Cudlin] out the front. We were both lapping exactly the same pace, we were both racing the pit board, basically, Damo was just over a second in front of me and every time I closed the gap he stretched it out, he sort of stayed there. It was so difficult just to stay on the bike – it was really slippery. But we could lap consistently quicker than the guys further back. To be honest the R1 was fantastic in the rain, and I had to learn about it pretty quick.

That result, especially given the unknowns surrounding the R1 in the rain, must have really boosted your confidence for the second race?

Yes, but as far as the second race went it was a total gamble on the grid. The start was delayed, and then it was started again, the grid procedure was then delayed, everything was quite hard. In the end they called it a wet race, but everyone went on slicks. If it deteriorated we would have to come in and change the tyre – they wouldn’t stop the race. It was one of those situations that you just have to manage.

2013 marks Jones’ fourth full season in the IDM German Superbike ranks, and his best shot yet at title success.

Everyone went for slicks. The track was completely dry, so we just had to get on with it and push hard from the start. It was excellent for me because I got away really well, and myself and Markus Reiterberger pulled out a lead fairly quickly, and then it was just a battle to the line. Where the track was still wet, it was completely dry where you would normally use the track, so the lap times were as fast as they had been even in qualifiers.

Every place that you could pass, Markus pushed me into the wet areas, so it made it really difficult. All I could do was keep that pressure on, and hope for a mistake. It wasn’t to be, but I kept the pressure on and kept the lap times up. It was a great race, we scored the most points of anyone all weekend.

Congratulations on the result, it must have been satisfying to come away with such strong points and really start to build up your title campaign?

We’re third in the championship now, one point off second. So for us that’s fantastic. To go away with a strong points haul from a weekend like this is great and it’s all helping the confidence. To be able to go out into the rain having never ridden the bike in the rain and be on the podium is great, and then to back it up in the dry is just a really solid result.

Quite often when you go out and finish on the box in the wet people say it’s only due to the fact it was wet, but to do it in the dry, and the lap times we did were well under the previous record, so we’re happy with that. I think I did 1m33.10, the lap record was 1m33.8. We’re only 20-something points off Damo anyway, so we’re still well within reach.

Thanks for speaking with us, and good luck for the rest of the season. We’ll be sure to check back in soon.