Former champion Mike Jones has suggested his future still remains unclear after yet another strong performance in today’s second round of the 2019 Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at Wakefield Park in New South Wales.

Jones, who has raced internationally for the past two seasons, finished just off the podium at Phillip Island’s opener – a performance he repeated today, claiming third in the final race to collect a 5-3 scorecard for fourth overall, just one point shy of the top three.

Filling in for the injured Troy Bayliss at DesmoSport Ducati during this weekend’s proceedings, Jones is still unsure where his career is headed with no further discussions held with the factory Ducati squad to continue on Bayliss’ return, however his championship ranking of third has made the ASBK a more enticing series for him to focus on locking down support.

“Certainly having the results I’ve had in the first couple of rounds, and being in the position that I’m in in the championship, it’s certainly enticing to continue doing the championship and seeing how it pans out,” Jones explained to CycleOnline.com.au.

“For me, as a young rider looking to further my career, I’ve been looking at options to continue racing in Europe and that’s in the hope of eventually racing in world championship level races. The weekend was quite good for me, I think we showed that we had really good pace – obviously in the first race I suffered from a poor start, which meant I didn’t get to go away with the front guys.

“I rectified that for the second race and I got away with them – third place was really good and I’m happy with it, but I do think had there not been a red flag, I might’ve been in for a better result. It’s been really awesome to fill-in for Troy and join the guys at DesmoSport Ducati again.”

The next stop of the ASBK is scheduled for 26-28 April at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia, where Bayliss is anticipated to return to racing.