CRAIG Jones made a scintillating start to the World Supersport Series at Donnington Park on Sunday - without even getting on the podium.
Having struggled to qualify and starting from the fifth row of the grid he had a mountain to climb to get a good result with a top class field ahead of him.
But, when interviewed before the start of the race, Jones boldly vowed a top-five finish - and came fourth.
He was aboard his new Reve Ekerold Honda machine, made a good start and settled down to picking off riders as the race progressed. When the race was stopped, just short of the two-thirds distance, he was already in fifth place.
This meant that a restart was the order of the day with an 11-lap race and the scoring was to be aggregated across both races.
Jones again got a good start and ran with the top rider over the 11 laps to attain fourth spot and fourth overall.
It was an astounding ride from Jones, giving him 13 points from the first of three home rounds.
His machine, now dressed in red, white and blue, has certainly come at a turning point in the series and he is now seventh in the standings.
Jones said afterwards he felt his fortunes were changing and, on a new machine, approaches the next hurdle at Valencia with more confidence.
He scored only four points in the first meeting and two at the second.
'The result was still disappointing but now I am confident that I can get even better results in the future,' he said.
