WSB BRANDS HATCH DIARY OF CRAIG JONES

Sadly, Craig succumbed to the injuries sustained in a crash yesterday, and passed away in the early hours of this morning.

If you would like to pass on your messages of support to his family, friends and team, please click here

Below is a diary that our superbike reporter Tammy Milsom was keeping with Craig during the Brands Hatch weekend. After consulting with his team, we have decided to leave it here as a tribute to Craig's love of motorcycle racing.

Friday 1st August

It was quite a busy morning as when I wasn't on track. I was doing a bit of running around sorting out tickets for sponsors and friends, so at least I got that out the way. It was a good start to the weekend on track as I was fastest in the first session with a time of 1'28.857s, the only rider in the 1'28s. I got to grips with track pretty quick and the bike felt pretty good.

The afternoon was going well and I think I was fastest when I had a bit of crash. I lost the front end and had a small off which damaged the bike. I ended up missing 20 minutes of the session, but I think I had the pace to go a little faster. It was good damage limitation for the session to finish second though.

In the evening I really chilled out with friends and I also went up and did the chat show for the Chris Jones Riders Fund with Larry Carter and Fred Clark. Quite a few riders were up there so it was quite good fun.

Saturday 2nd August

This morning went ok, but it took a bit of time to get up to speed. I just didn't quite have the feeling I wanted from the bike so I came in and had a few alterations done. I pretty much equalled my fastest time so I was happy with that.

We've just got to make sure this afternoon that I can go out and be consistent and probably do a run of laps at the beginning of the session and see what happens. Johnny [Rea] did a real impressive time on race tyres, I need to go out to do a similar thing and also try to go one better and get pole.

Regarding setup, I've not really had any particular issues it's just been little things. The boys saw me on TV this morning and saw I was struggling a bit so they sort of had an idea of what I wanted to do before I came in. When I came in and what I said was the problem was what they thought so too, so that was good.

We just changed the front end a little bit to give me a little more feel and that's where I found my time this morning. I think I have found the speed from yesterday, we lost about 10 laps yesterday because of the crash so that was pretty annoying and we probably would have been a bit more up to speed for this morning if that hadn't have happened.

Like I said though, it was damage limitation yesterday in being second so if it is wet this afternoon we will be on the front row. We would just want to make sure we have the right tyre for the race, which is what Johnny [Rea] has done this morning so we will just have to wait and see what happens this afternoon.

Final Qualifying

I am disappointed with this afternoon's qualifying, we went out and struggled at the beginning before I went my fastest. I had a bit in reserve for when we put the softer tyre on so I was looking forward to breaking out of the 1'28s and getting into the 1'27s lap times, but about five laps into the session I had a problem with the clutch.

I lost drive so I had to come into the pits and that took probably 15 to 20 minutes to fix, whilst fixing it the rain started coming down and it was a bit showering so that pretty much stopped the chance of a pole really. I think [Matthieu] Lagrive got the pole before anyone else had chance to.

This is a bit unfortunate for us, but it's still a front row and again damage limitation so we are not too disappointed. There was a bit of an issue towards the end of the session, in the damp somebody got in my way, it wasn't as though I was going fast, but it was dangerous.

I was coming into a corner on a difficult part of the track and somebody pulled on line and that's not really the done thing. You should give people a little more respect than that, I get out of people's way, but anyway it's just one of those things and we're all ok.

Now I am going to get a cup tea, watch Superpole and have a meal with the team later tonight ready for tomorrow. We're starting from the front, which is a good start and Johnny [Rea] is really strong so we will just have to battle it out tomorrow.

Sunday morning practice

I was a bit disappointed to wake up to the rain, I was lay in my bed deciding what I wanted to achieve in the dry and the times I wanted to achieve. I opened the blinds and is was raining. I am a bit disappointed I felt I could have had a good go in the dry but it's one of those things, it's the same for everybody else.

I had a good run in the session, I got held up a little bit and I felt I could have been fastest if I had a bit of clear track. I am not too worried about it, hopefully it will be dry for the race and the sun will come out.

I think we have an idea of tyres both ways, not 100% confident. I would have liked to have checked out the situation a bit more this morning, but I think everybody pretty much are in the same boat. I think the only person that knows what tyres to run is Johnny [Rea], but thats only one guy and he may make the wrong decision we will see.