Former RGB Champion Derek Jones is plotting to regain his crown from friend and rival Paul Rogers with the purchase of a new Sabre sports racer.

The man from Mulbarton will lead the attack on the 750 Motor Club series in one of the AB Performance built Sabre, as seen last year on the BBC's Dragon Den.

Andy Bates, a former sidecar racer, champion and builder, is the constructor of the bike-engined sportscar at his base in Buxhall, near Stowmarket, and while Tim Grey had some guest appearances in the series last year it will be an all-out championship effort with Jones this season.

Current title holder Rogers, from Attleborough, had some spirited battles with Grey in the Sabre towards the end of last season but with points at stake and local pride the race for the title will be one not to be missed.

'We have completed a very successful shake down test and developed a baseline set-up at Snetterton in November and followed that up with almost 80 passenger laps during the Snetterton charity day,' said Jones. 'Over the winter months we are developing a number of changes to give a little more driver feedback and increase the aerodynamics a little and we should be out testing again a couple of weeks.'

Sadly Snetterton is missing from the championship dates this year with the locally-based club only booked into the Norfolk venue for a single day in early October.

Jones has been a front runner in the RGB series since 2006 when he finished fourth overall and third in his category while in the following season six victories set him on the way to the overall title.

In 2008 the local racer wanted to win races outright and not just class victories and armed with a BDN sports racer Jones achieved his aim taking a host of race wins on the way to the title from Rogers who was competing in Class B at the time.

A part season and two retirements hindered his title hopes in 2009 but a bunch of mid-season victories still saw Jones finish just a point behind the Class A Champion, Steve Robinson, and fifth overall.

At the start of 2010 Rogers wasn't fully recovered from an operation and lent his car to Jones for the opening round of the season at Snetterton who calmly took a well deserved victory in his friend and rival's machine.

Jones then re-joined the series in a Class B Fisher Fury and again just narrowly missed out on taking the category title by three points to Matthew Green, having missed four races.

Last year Jones continued with the Fury and even led the series on its first visit to Snetterton, after a run of three victories, however a disastrous second trip scuppered his title hopes and he finished third overall and second in Class F to another former champion, Alastair Boulton.