Report by IAN KELLY

RISING star Craig Jones suffered an unfortunate end to an excellent season during the final round of the Aprilia RS125 Motorcycling Championship at Donington Park.

The 14-year-old rider from Greenbank took control of the race in its early stages, but fell back to third place as his bike developed tyre problems and began sliding.

With a couple of laps to go, Craig decided to make an all-or-nothing push for victory, but he came to grief at the Melbourne Hairpin. Thankfully he was not injured and was able to remount his machine and finish in seventh place.

The result meant that Craig finished fourth overall in the championship, and according to his dad Steve, the year has brought a lot of positives, including an impressive victory on his debut at home track Oulton Park in July.

Steve said: "He has done tremendously well considering it was only supposed to be his learning year.

"He has had some really good races and set lap records at four tracks - Brands Hatch, Thruxton, Snetterton and Oulton Park.

"As for next season, we are looking for funding to allow him to compete in the 125cc Supercup, so we'll just wait and see what happens."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.