page_title: Craig Jones (motorcyclist)
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Craig Jones (motorcyclist) / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Craig Jones. World Superbikes meeting at Brands Hatch 1st August 2008. Supersport Practice.
context_page_description: Craig Jones was an English motorcycle racer. He grew up in the town of Northwich in Cheshire and attended Charles Darwin Primary School, and later Hartford High School. He died in 2008, shortly after a racing accident when he fell and was struck by another motorcycle.
context_section_description: Born at Leighton Hospital Crewe, Cheshire, Jones grew up in nearby Northwich and remained there until later in his career he moved to Peterborough. Jones was a successful racer in the lower ranks of the British motorcycling ladder, winning the 1996 British Junior Mini-Moto Championship, the 1997 British Senior Mini-Moto Championship and the 2002 British Junior Superstock Championship before moving up to the British Supersport Championship.
  In 2003 and 2004, he rode a Daytona 600 in the British Supersport Championship, initially with teammate Jim Moodie in the Valmoto team run by experienced tuner/team manager Jack Valentine in conjunction with the Triumph factory, which returned to racing in 2003 after an absence of 30 years. Jones was retained by Valmoto as sole-rider for 2004, and finished the season with a win at the last round and in eighth position overall.
  In 2005 Jones has his best year in the British Supersport Championship riding for the Northpoint Honda team, achieving seven podium finishes and second overall in the title contest behind Leon Camier. Jones' riding that year earned him wildcard entry into the two British rounds of World Supersport, where he performed impressively. Jones qualified on the front row at Silverstone and was contesting the lead when he pulled out of the race with clutch problems, and he finished eighth at Brands Hatch. Jones was also called up as a stand-in rider for the prestigious Ten Kate Honda team at Brno, where he finished sixth.
  Jones moved up to the Superbike World Championship for the 2006 season on the uncompetitive Foggy Petronas FP1. A solitary thirteenth place at Imola was his only points finish in the championship.
  In 2007, Jones returned to the Supersport World Championship category for his first season as a full-time supersport rider, riding with the Reve Ekerold Honda team. Jones suffered many technical problems early in the season, and crashed out of the lead at Brands Hatch, but a took podiums at Brno, and in the season's final two rounds Vallelunga and Magny-Cours. At Vallelunga he was leading when the red flag was thrown, but lost the race to Kenan Sofuoğlu as the Turkish rider was leading the last completed lap. The podium at Magny-Cours moved him up from 7th to 5th in the final standings.
  For 2008, Jones remained in Supersport, riding a factory supported Honda for the Portuguese-based Parkalgar Racing Team, with his team now managed by Simon Buckmaster, and added three more podiums including the season-opener at Losail and again at Valencia after an intense battle with Fabien Foret. Despite finishing off the podium at the Monza race, due to a severe hand injury caused in practice, and technical problems in the race at Brno (where he was at the front just two laps before the end), he was sixth in the championship before his ultimately tragic home round at Brands Hatch.
caption: Jones in August 2008
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