Privateer quits Europe

Press, 13 June 1986, Page 14

Privateer quits Europe

The Christchurch motorcycle roadracer Brent Jones has returned home from his European campaign, frustrated at the apparent inability of a privateer rider to compete with the factory teams on the world championship trail. “We took a very large sum of money — in New Zealand terms — much more than you would ever spend in a national campaign here, and it was nothing like enough for a reasonable effort,” said Jones. Jones, the national Formula Two champion t contested the competitiveßso cu.

cm. class of the world championship on the latest Yamaha, but found his machine was nowhere near as quick as the works bikes in a straight line. With the extra effort’requlred on the corners and under braking to make up for their straight-line speed deficiency, Jones found racing hectic among the ranks of the privateers, with riders often sliding off the circuit, or crashing. With as many as 15 factory entered machines in each race, Jones found that a top--20 finish was as good as a privateer racer could expect The Yamaha which Jones

used in his European foray has been brought back to New Zealand where it will be prepared for the defence of his national title. Jones is confident the bike will be extremely competitive in New Zealand conditions.

While in Europe, Jones was not particularly impressed with the organisation of the non-championship events, although he found the grand prix events professional. Jones will travel to Malaysia within the next few months to contest the SouthEast Asian races on behalf of the Malaysian Yamaha importifs.