Last sunday,Gareth Jones was confirmed as a motorcycle racing champion on 2 continents after adding the 2009 Dutch Superbike Championship to his New Zealand Supersport Championship which he won in the first 3 months of this year.

The 22 year old Aussie from Canungra in Queensland takes the Dutch title by holding a 27 point lead with a race to spare.

This 11th round of the ONK at Assen was styled “The Race of Champions” and it proved to be a compelling weekend. Saturday qualifying was nip and tuck as at various stages Ghisbert van Ginhoven, Peter Politiek and Gareth all took their turns as provisional pole sitters. Gareth took the opportunity to get used to his race set up on the Yamaha having raced for BMW the previous weekend. He qualified a very creditable 3rd as he re-acquainted himself with his bike “Herbie”.

Gareth started from 3rd on the grid and he converted it into 1st place at turn 1 estab-lishing a lead only to be over-taken by Peter Politiek. As he entered the 5th turn his rear tyre unexpectedly lost grip and the race was over for Jones. His Yamaha “Herbie” bounced and spectacularly burst into flames.

Fortunately the race result didn't matter as the championship was secured but a frustrated Jones said afterwards “I wanted to finish the championship with a win in this race but it wasn't to be, I still don't know what happened, Peter passed me and I remember thinking take it easy there is plenty of time to get it back, then the rear wheel let go and I was flying through the air with the burning wreckage of Herbie (the bike). It wasn't exactly the fireworks display and BBQ that I had in mind. I could understand it if I was pushing really hard and I lost it, but this was un-usual, it happened so quickly and was unrecoverable, we will have to review it later.”

And so the Dutch adventure comes to an end with one last race in an unforgettable 2009 sea-son and then he will be moving on to target the German IDM championship for next season.

Team Owner/Manager Rob Vennegoor comment's;

“We have done what we set out to achieve this season, win the Dutch Championship and es-tablish RT Motorsport as a team to contend with both here and in the IDM paddock.
The team has been exceptional, we have a great rider and high class results in multiple championships. I would like to thank all our sponsors for their support this year, they have enabled us to become the dominant team in the ONK and we now have opportunity to be serious contenders for the IDM champion-ship as well.

Today‟s result was disappointing but championships are won over a season and Gareth has been the best rider.”

Comments from Gareth Jones;

“I have had a great year and want to thank my team and the sponsors for looking after me for the last 6 months, giving me the chance to deliver performances to win races, to earn points and to win this championship.

It was important to put aside the distractions of the IDM and win the Dutch Championship because no matter what happens in the future the RT Motorsports team will always be the 2009 Dutch Superbike Cham-pions and they deserve it because they have been through every twist and turn of this championship with me. It has been like being part of a family.

Even when the crash hap-pened the team and supporters were more concerned for my safety than the fact that we had lost a race. Even if I did get some jokes about BBQ-ing „Herbie‟ the bike
I can now look forward to one last race in Assen in 2 weeks and then getting back to Australia and a winter training for next year.”

Gareth Jones with teammanager Rob Vennegoor holding Gareth's Rookie of the Year award.

Crash and burn due to cold tire highsider, Gareth walked away unharmed

Award winning Team RT Motorsport relies on Moto-Master Flame discs.