Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes had a mixed MCE British Superbike weekend at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. He crashed out of the first race and ended up being held up by a back-marker in race two which put a stop to him catching up with Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne - the eventual race winner.
Brookes does not want to blame anyone – and accepts that it’s his own fault that he failed to take a win, in what was promising to be a successful race weekend for the rider, especially after topping the free practice timesheets and clinching pole during a very wet qualifying session.
The rider is still getting used to his Yamaha and is figuring out how it feels in different conditions. It took the Aussie four laps to feel comfortable in the final race of the day and as soon as he found a way to improve his race-pace he made it his mission to get to the front – and very nearly did.
“I am a little bit disappointed after my race one crash. In the race I felt it was a bit easy and I was looking at my lap times and I was a second slower than what I can do on the tyres,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com
“The grip wasn’t there and the bike just let go. I had two or three moments in race two, and after what happened in race one I knew the grip wasn’t there and I had to brake earlier to stop me from crashing. I think it’s a combination of not knowing the bike and the warning signs are not that familiar - as I am new to the Yamaha.
“In the second race i was paranoid about falling off and I was guessing what I should do. I rode to what I felt the conditions were and I gave myself three to four laps to get a feel for the track and that is what I did.
“I don’t want to make any excuses for race two – in hindsight if the back-marker wasn’t there I might not have won the race. What I am disappointed with is that he had three corners to get out of the way and then Shakey passed him and he knew the leaders were near and he still didn’t get out of the way, and stayed in the middle of the track. I think it is a bit bizarre. But a guy who has been racing his whole life should know better than to get in the way of the front runners.”
