Image: Foremost Media.

Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) leader Mike Jones was ‘grateful’ to finish race two at Morgan Park following that last lap save at turn nine.

With a second-place finish in race one, Jones launched to an early lead in the second bout at the Southern Downs circuit, closely followed by title-rival Maxwell.

While Troy Herfoss, Bryan Staring and Broc Pearson joined the fight at the front throughout the race, it ultimately came down to a last-lap showdown between the number 46 and the reigning champion.

Maxwell made his move on the entry to turn nine and in an attempt to respond Jones had a sizeable rear-end lose, but was able to importantly keep the bike upright and score a valuable 20 points from the outing.

“In race two, I made a fantastic start and was able to holeshot and lead the race, and tried to manage the pace at the start but a few of the other guys had other ideas and they were coming past,” Jones told CycleOnline.

“The battles heated up in the middle of the race, it was quite difficult, quite tough, but was able to put my head down and start making a bit of a gap there in the last few laps of the race, but Wayne [Maxwell] was coming and he was very strong.

“He put a move on in the last section of the last lap and I tried to keep on the outside of him, but was on the dirty part of the track and whipped the back up and nearly spat myself off. I was just grateful to come across the finish line rather than in the gravel travel trap. Crazy, crazy racing here, but overall, really clean and great fun.”

Jones’ 2-2 scorecard saw him second overall for the round, and limited points lost to Maxwell who delivered a perfect weekend with pole and two race wins. The gap between the pair is 29 points entering the final two rounds.