MOTORSPORT: CRAIG Jones was heading for his second best finish of the season when he crashed in the latest round of the British Supersport Championships at Mallory Park on Sunday.

The 19-year-old Greenbankbased rider was placed sixth two corners from home when he was thrown over the front of his Triumph Valmoto bike.

Dad Steve said: 'He's okay but his pride was hurt and he was annoyed.

'He chose a hard compound tyre and we thought it would last but it did not have the same grip as soft compound and it contributed to the crash.'

Jones, who raced to a second place in the series earlier in the season, dropped from seventh to 10th in the rankings. But there is still time for a top-six finish, which would be a satisfying end to his second season with Triumph.

'Everything else went fine at the weekend. He was less than half-a-second off pole position and was confident of doing well if he got a good start.

'After three or four laps he was up to fourth, but it went wrong later.

'It is all good experience and the team were happy with all other aspects and he got plenty of TV coverage,' said Steve.

Craig races in a Supersport support event to the British Grand Prix in front of an expected 80,000 crowd at Donington this weekend. He was handed a wildcard entry for the World Supersport event at Brands Hatch the following week and Triumph plan to enter him into two more internationals abroad before the end of the season.

The British Championships is completed with meetings at Croft and Cadwell in August and Oulton Park and Donington in September. The world famous Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting reaches its landmark 50th birthday at the August 28-30 meeting.

The anniversary event will be celebrated in style with the biggest festival of classic motoring and motor sport ever seen in the north of England.

More than 1,000 classic race and road cars will be on display or competing, plus a parade of 50 of the most notable vehicles of the last century and a host of attractions for enthusiasts, families and fans.

The star of the inaugural Gold Cup in 1954 was a young charger by the name of Stirling Moss. The race, which brought together the Grand Prix cars of the day, ran in its original format until the mid-70s after which rule changes banned them from competing outside the Formula One Championship.

Back in August 1954, Moss beat the odds to take a famous win that has become part of motor sport folklore and cemented the Gold Cup's future as one of Oulton Park's most star-studded annual events.

The meeting gave the people of the North West chance to become the first in Britain to see Moss's works Maserati 250F in action. It only just happened, though, as the car only arrived in the UK from the factory in Italy the morning of the race. Having been rushed through HM Customs, it reached Oulton too late for qualifying and Moss had to start from the back of the field.

Undaunted, the then 24-year-old had passed 12 cars on the first lap and, by the fourth, he had taken the lead. After that, and with no competition to speak of, Moss proved his outright speed by completing a series of demonstration laps, shattering the lap record for the newly constructed 2.7-mile circuit configuration, which was being used for the first time that day.

Moss remains the Gold Cup king with five wins, but others to have scooped the prestigious prize include Jack Brabham, John Surtees, Jim Clark and Jackie Ickx.

Tickets cost £20 for the weekend or £15 per day and can be bought in advance by contacting the Oulton Park hotline on 0870 950 9000. Children aged 15 and under go free.