MOTORBIKE racer Luke Jones was pleased with a steady sixth place finish at the latest round of the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship.

After suffering misfortune in the past few rounds Jones, on the Highsparks Ducati, headed to the UK’s fastest circuit at Thruxton in Hampshire for the latest round of the series, writes Tim Davies

In the two practice sessions held on Friday, he posting times inside the top ten in both sessions with ninth in the morning, improving to sixth in the afternoon.

Qualifying on Saturday also went well as Jones qualified in sixth place on the grid for Sunday's race, just 0.893 seconds off pole position Billy McConnell on the OMG Suzuki.

The race started at lunchtime on Sunday and away from the line Jones was able to maintain his sixth place position.

He was part of an eight bike front group that broke away from the rest of the 39 bike field.

As the race wore on Jones was comfortable in eighth place, until near it’s conclusion both Andrew Reid and Chrissy Rouse dropped back and Jones was able to get back ahead of them to finish in sixth place.

Jones finished 8.6 seconds behind the winner, Bathams BMW rider Taylor Mackenzie, who took the lead at the Club Chicane on the final lap.

Jones now sits 15th in the championship after the weekends result.

He said: “Finally we’ve had a relaxing weekend where we’ve finished every session and no breakdowns.

"The team have been working hard behind the scenes to make the bike more reliable and it’s starting to pay off. It’s nice to finally finish a dry race and at the sharp end, unfortunately we still had problems in the race which caused me to drop off slightly from the leading pack, but I’m just happy for me and team to get a finish and we can build on it from here.”

The series next race is at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire between August 16 and 18.