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FEBRUARY 14, 2007: It's a golden opportunity and one that Christchurch's Dominic Jones doesn't want to waste.
The 21-year-old star of the future has been given a guest ride spot on one of New Zealand's leading Yamaha teams.
Jones is back on holiday in New Zealand after a season racing in the United States and is thrilled to have been offered a “keep the seat warm” role for the Bernard Racing Yamaha Team this weekend. He returns to pick up where he left off in America early next week.
He was racing a privateer Suzuki in the AMA superbike series last season and achieving top-20 results.
In the meantime, Jones will take care of Australian Scott Charlton’s Yamaha R6 at this weekend’s second round of the New Zealand Battle of the Streets series at Paeroa.
After guest rider Jones conducted testing at Manfeild, near Palmerston North last weekend, team owner and manager Brian Bernard declared himself happy with Jones’ results on the 600cc YZFR6.
“He was very quick on the bike almost immediately,” said Bernard.
“He was fast straight away and chasing Sam Smith, which is no mean feat.”
Pukekohe’s Smith (Yamaha) leads the 600cc sports production class after three rounds of this year's national road-race series and is still glowing after being named Most Promising Newcomer (road-racing) at the annual black-tie Motorcycling New Zealand awards ceremony in Auckland a fortnight ago.
As an up-and-comer of a similar mould to Smith, Jones may be just the man to challenge for the win at Paeroa.
“I’ve never raced a street circuit before so that should be interesting,” said Jones. “I was pretty impressed with the Yamaha. It’s the first time on a Yamaha too but it’s an awesome machine and I loved it straight away. Hopefully I can get a top-five result at Paeroa. I really want to repay Brian for having faith in me.”
Jones will have a Bernard Racing Yamaha Team regular, Australian Chris Seaton, as team-mate for the day, a man who is also one of the favourites to win on the tricky public street course.
“Chris stands a very good chance of winning on either the R6 or R1 Yamaha bikes,” said Bernard. “He leads one class and is second in another after the first round (on the streets of Wanganui's Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day).”
