The Story So Far

At XLR8 Racing Kft., our founder brings a unique blend of English and beginner-level Hungarian, affectionately known as ‘Hunglish’, to every interaction. Striving for improvement daily, he embodies the spirit of constant improvement.

If you have visited an openday at a track in Hungary in recent years then you may have already seen the XLR8 team, either riding on the track or providing the tyre service to all of the participants.

For several years the XLR8 team was the largest and most successful team in the Hungarian 1000 and 600 Championships.

Originating in the British Midlands, Ash Jones has be riding motorcycles since he was 6 years old, beginning on a Yamaha YZ80 and quickly moving to the faster Kawasaki KX80. This was in the 1970’s when getting help to service or maintain a competition bike was not easy to find. Especially on a 6 year old’s salary.

Since then, many years have passed and an extensive list of bikes have been ridden, maintained and tuned. Aprilia, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Honda, Suzuki, BMW, Ducati and more Kawasaki…

Now living near Budapest, Hungary, he competes successfully in the Hungarian 1000cc championship, even winning the amateur championship at his first attempt in 2017 on a Ducati 1098R, before moving to more up-to-date machinery.

Throughout his entire career as a rider, Ash has consistently taken care of his bikes, drawing on his expertise as a certified motorcycle mechanic in the UK. The only time he deviated from this was in 2018 when he accepted a pre-built Kawasaki, which unfortunately fell short of his expectations and disastrously failed during a championship event at the Hungaroring. This experience served as a turning point for Ash, prompting him to take charge of building, setting up, and maintaining his own race bikes. Leveraging his technical know-how and training, he honed his skills and demonstrated tangible results through faster lap times.