Mad Mike Flips the Script at Queensland Raceway

Late race charge sees Jones defeat Waters at ‘The Paperclip’ for the first time this year

Cool but sunny conditions greeted the field for Race 2—which was really Race 1 after yesterday’s opener was canned due to oil on the track—and a big race-day crowd turned up for the combined Supercars and Superbikes show. When the lights went out, Josh Waters did what he usually does and nailed the holeshot from pole, with Mike Jones tucked in behind. Harrison Voight muscled past Glenn Allerton into turn 1, while further back there were nervous glances at Jonathan Nahlous as his bike started blowing smoke.

By lap two, Waters had already edged out a half-second gap. Voight slipped by Jones for second, Allerton and Broc Pearson got stuck into a scrap for fourth, and for a moment Allerton even nicked third from Jones—only for Jones to fire straight back at the next chance. On lap three Jones pressed the issue and took Voight for second into turn 1, looking very much like he’d managed his tyre temps early and was ready to go to work. But Voight’s day unraveled on lap four as he disappeared from the timing screens with a tech issue. Jones immediately attacked Waters into turn 1, but ran it a touch wide, allowing Allerton to pounce and grab second. Allerton was pushing hard, but Waters had settled into his rhythm and started edging away to a 1 second lead.

As the laps ticked by, the order read Waters from Allerton, Jones, Pearson, and Anthony West—until Jones regrouped and slipped past Allerton on the run into turn 3. Waters seemed to have control of the race out in front but Jones was a man on a mission, chopping the margin to six tenths and putting more than a second on Pearson in third. West, meanwhile, was all over Allerton in the fight for fourth. As the lead riders crossed the finish stripe for the next lap, Jones was suddenly welded to Waters’ rear tyre. He showed him a front into turn 2 but Waters slammed the door shut into the apex.

He didn’t keep him at bay for long though. On the very next lap, Jones had another big lunge at the fast turn 2 and made it stick with some super-late “Mad Mike” braking. Waters tried to counter straight away, but Jones seemed to have better grip off the corners than the Ducati man. From there, Jones put his head down and started easing clear, determined not to give Waters a chance to return serve. Waters punched out a personal-best first sector to keep him honest, while Pearson, Allerton, and West kept the pressure on behind in their scrap for the final podium spot.

On the last lap Jones had about six tenths in hand and kept it neat and tidy to take victory ahead of Waters. The Yamaha man was ecstatic as he crossed for back to back wins, after Waters dominated the first half of the season. Broc Pearson took third from Glenn Allerton and Anthony West, Cameron Dunker was sixth and Jonathan Nahlous overcame whatever was causing his bike to blow smoke in the early stages for seventh. Max Stauffer—fresh off the Suzuka 8 Hour—took eighth ahead of John Lytras, with Jack Favelle rounding out the top ten.

Mike Jones (P1): “A little bit unexpected, to be honest. Based on the previous round when we were here, Josh had so much pace in qualifying, so I knew we were up against it. But my team didn’t stop trying all weekend and they gave me something in the warm-up which really helped, so special thanks to them, especially my guys Dylan and Liam. They busted themselves to try and give me the best one I could and I’m just glad that I was able to ride it to the finish and get a win—fully on the limit there—but yeah, awesome race, can’t wait to see race two.”

Josh Waters (P2): “It was good. Another good result. The track was quite a lot different to what I expected and Mike had a lot of grip, so yeah, we’ll go back, try our hardest and, yeah, huge thanks to the team once again. I know they won’t give in—I’ll try again.”

Broc Pearson (P3): “I had a good race, I was consistent—that was my goal. I think I had enough to go to the front boys, but I just got stuck on the first couple of laps, but yes, that was better. It wasn’t a surprise that Harry came through, I sort of expected that. I had to wait for the opportunities to present themselves. I was a little bit down on acceleration compared to some of the other bikes on the turn, but all in all, yeah, I felt like I was good enough to win today, so I’m gonna keep chipping and we’ve got another one to go.”