Image: Foremost Media.

Yamaha Racing Team’s Mike Jones has admitted that a fourth-place finish at round three of the 2025 Mi-bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at Queensland Raceway wasn’t the result he was chasing, instead targeting the top position at a place where he is notoriously strong.

The weekend started well for the title challenger, who posted a record-breaking lap-time in qualifying to seal pole position at a venue that he put in a dominant 1-1 performance just one year ago.

In the fight throughout each encounter, a closely-contested opening race saw Jones fall shy of the victory by under a second to rival Josh Waters (McMartin Racing Ducati), before a red-flagged restart due to weather in race two – while Jones was out front – ultimately resulted in a fourth place finish.

“We came here hoping to go 1-1 in both the races, but that wasn’t the case,” commented Jones. “We had a hard-fought dry race for the first one, and once Josh [Waters] had got to the lead, I was trying to hang onto him to see if there was a pass available at the end, although it wasn’t to be, and we finished second.

“Race two was looking really good, I got to the lead on the opening lap and was trying to control the race from the front, then about six or so laps in, the rain came down and brought out the red flag. We got into a restarted wet race, and given my previous performances in the rain, P4 there was actually pretty good.

“Obviously, that’s not the result we wanted this weekend, but those are the cards that we were dealt, and I felt out of both races I got the maximum from both myself and the package that we had.”

A third-consecutive overall win for Waters sees him sit atop the ASBK series standings with 169 points, with Jones now trailing by 32 as the championship heads to Morgan Park Raceway in just over a month on June 13-15.