Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes came away from the MCE British Superbike double header at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with two third place finishes. The Bringelly rider was locked in a battle for second with PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne in both races, but the ZX-10R had that added pace to edge on ahead to take second. Brookes thought he was doing a good job, but in the end it ‘wasn’t good enough’ to beat the four-times champ.
Both riders could not catch up with eventual double race winner JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison, and Brookes tried to maintain a fast lap time to keep up with the Cumbrian but struggled in the early parts of the race. In the end Ellison was able to get away to do the double. With the two podiums the Australian is third in the overall championship standings, and has gained some valuable podium credits too.
“I feel really comfortable on the bike at the moment - but I am struggling to maintain the lap time for the start of the race. Eight or ten laps in things start to feel better, but then James started to disappear which was a bit annoying, but I just wanted to catch up on Shakey but I thought I was doing a good job – but not good enough,” said Brookes at the track.
“The lap times on the dash were 45’s so the pace was good but we were both doing those times and I had the pace. But the race felt so short and trying to play catch up as hard. I was focusing on my lap times and didn’t realise it was the last lap, as the pace was so fast.”
