CHARPENTIER JOINED BY CRAIG JONES FOR CZECH CHALLENGE World Superpsort championship leader, Sébastien Charpentier, will have a new team-mate for this weekend’s seventh round event at Brno in the Czech Republic. The Winston Honda rider will be joined by Britain’s Craig Jones, who replaces the injured Katsuaki Fujiwara. While Charpentier seeks his fifth win of the season and an extension of his series points lead over Fujiwara, Jones heads for the 5.4km Brno circuit direct from last Sunday’s British Supersport race at Snetterton, following which he holds second place in the UK domestic championship. Ronald ten Kate team manager: “We’re sorry that Kats (Fujiwara) won’t be with us in Brno but wish him a speedy recovery from his back injury. Gerrit (ten Kate) has been following Craig Jones’s career in the British championship for the last couple of years and, of course, we saw his performance as a wild-card at the recent World Supersport event at Silverstone. As one of the brightest young prospects in British racing, Craig was a natural choice for us to replace Kats at Brno. It’s always difficult riding as a replacement, though, so we won’t be putting any pressure on him. We just want him to enjoy the experience and to get a taste for life in a world championship team. Of course, it’s our first visit to Brno as a team so we’ll be working hard to give Sébastien a good race set-up that will allow him to continue his domination of the series.” Sébastien Charpentier championship position 1st, 140 points: “I was very sorry when I heard about Kats crashing in Japan and look forward to welcoming him back to the team at the Brands Hatch round. He has given me the strongest challenge this season and has taken two race wins to show how strong he is. But I’m looking forward to welcoming Craig to the team and giving him whatever help I can. It’ll be good to know that he’s on our side for this race because he was certainly impressive at Silverstone in May. I’ve heard a lot about the Brno circuit and think that it will suit both my style and the CBR’s characteristics. I know our main challengers from both Honda and Yamaha have tested there already so we will need to get up to speed very quickly to help the championship, which is our overall priority.” Craig Jones: “I feel very sorry for Kats and hope he recovers quickly but, as you can imagine, I am very excited to have been given this opportunity. I’d like to thank Gerrit and Ronald of course, but also my team manager in the UK, Gary Ekerold, who has been kind enough to release me for this ride. I really enjoyed the Silverstone event and managed to qualify on the front row, even though I had a mechanical failure in the race. I’ve wanted to ride for Gerrit for a long time and I can’t wait to get on one of the famous Ten Kate Hondas. I hope the fact that most of the other riders haven’t been to Brno either will give me a level playing field to start with, but I understand the team won’t put any pressure on me. I’m just really looking forward to the whole experience.” World Supersport Championship points after six of 12 rounds: 1 Sébastien Charpentier FRA (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 140, 2 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 106, 3 Kevin Curtain AUS (Yamaha) 93, 4 Fabien Foret FRA (Honda) 74, 4 Broc Parkes AUS (Yamaha) 60, 5 Stephane Chambon FRA (Honda) 46, 6 Michel Fabrizio ITA (Honda) 42, 7 Gianluca Nannelli ITA (Ducati) 41, 9 Tauto Lauslehto FIN (Honda) 36, 10 Javier Fores ESP (Suzuki) 36. Brno World Supersport event schedule: Friday 15 July 09.35-10.20 free practice, 13.15-14.00 qualifying; Saturday 16 July 10.00-10.45 free practice, 13.45-14.30 qualifying; Sunday 17 July 09.50-10.10 warm-up, 13.20 race (18 laps, 97.254km).