Anvil Hire TAG Racing’s Josh Brookes has been away from the MCE British Superbike championship for a year, but he definitely made an impact today after being in contention for the victory in race-two at Donington Park.
Brookes is back on the R1 and had a strong opening round of the season and even started on pole in the final race. He fought hard to subdue the attacks from the eventual double race winner Leon Haslam, and narrowly lost out on reaching the top step of the rostrum.
Brookes did not expect to be up the sharp end so soon during the series, and thought it maybe ‘difficult’ adapting again to riding the Yamaha and competing on the new compound Pirelli tyres, but he managed to finish in second place.
His goal is to be on the podium throughout the season, but one thing he has noticed from two years ago is the tyres. For him the SC1 rear was not a good option to race with two years ago, but he has seen it work for Haslam this weekend and may try out the harder tyre option in other rounds.
“Pleased to get the result and during the race starting from pole gave us a good hand in getting a better result. In 2015 we had the SC0 and if you didn’t race on that you weren’t really in the race as it was about tyre conservation,” said Brookes at the circuit.
“The SC1 tyre really wouldn’t do the distance you needed to be in the race. Two years later the situation has changed a little and the SC1 tyre is a good race option like Leon showed. You have got to work to make it the race option. I haven’t used the SC1 all weekend so it was too much of a risk to try it in the race.
“I knew we made good improvements from race one to race two so I was hoping that would be enough to make the tyre last the distance or at least make it last a bit better, and it did. My lap times at the beginning were consistent and quite fast and I always had that idea in the back of my mind that the closing laps were going to be tough.
“To see Leon pass me I had to accept it and it was an easy pass and he cleared off, for me I had to focus on my own race and keep pushing and try and stay consistent. We will look at trying to use the SC1 in the future. I am really pleased to be on the podium already this early in the season - it is a great result for the team and myself. I have expectations to be here more in the season but I thought it would be difficult at least in the first round, but to be here already is a great result.”
