Remembering Nathan Jones

Fast, Fierce, Fair. A Gentleman off track, a Relentless, Talented, Competitor on Track.

Never give in attitude, no excuses, only execution of speed when the lights went out.

A humble, joy to work with in the pit-box. A relentless competitor on track.

Nathan Jones was in some ways a contradiction. A lovely, gentle bloke in day to day life, yet such a force on a racetrack, unwilling to an inch in pursuit of the win.

You could argue there was a chink in his armor as a racer, his passing skills were a little behind the raw speed he had. Then again, if you're always out the front, and normally dicing with equally as rapid younger brother Tyson for the win, passing wasn't something that needed much attention.  4 x Victorian Superbike Championships would suggest that to be true.

A lovely memory we hold at Race Center is the relationship between Nathan and our very own workshop manager and Supersport gun Harley Sauce Side. From day one Harley was besotted with Nathan's speed, riding ability and overall approach to the whole sport. Harley definitely had a man crush.

Yet on the other side, Nathan could not fathom how Harley made passing look so easy. he admired Harley's ability to carve his way through a field following a poor start. Even asking Sauce for some guidance and help with passing. That in itself probably tells you something about Nathan, how grounded and humble he was despite his success

The title of this article is a little misleading, in that remembering could suggest not always present. However nothing could be further from the truth.

Nathan and the whole experience racing with the Jones family for that matter is forever present.

In the workshop, performance tuning in 2026 is a lot different to what is was in the past. While fuel tuning still plays an important role, in many cases it now takes a back seat to throttle and torque mapping.

Ride-by-wire ECUs and torque/throttle re-mapping is far more important with most modern bikes. We are now in our 9th year of our very own in-house developed throttle and torque maps. The work behind the scenes has been complex, very time consuming and difficult. Yet designed to deliver potent power in a smooth, easy to use way. Very much how it was to work with Nathan. Easy, joyous, yet potent.

Nathan's race number was 84 (the year he was born) So now you know a little about where the branding for our throttle and torque maps comes from, NJ84, Power delivery the way it should be.

After developing a new map, on the test rides, dyno runs. We are always ask ourselves, what would Nath think? would he approve of this map?

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