Josh Brookes’ challenge for this year’s British Superbike Championship took a dent at Brands Hatch at the weekend with the FHO Racing BMW rider only managing a best finish of ninth across the three races.

That came in Saturday’s wet Sprint race, where he’d started from the front row, but hopes of a better day on Sunday disappeared with 12^th in the opener and a first lap, first corner crash in the third and final race.

It had all started positively for the 2015 and 2020 Champion when he topped Friday’s first practice session, but his weekend took a downhill turn from thereafter. Leaving the Kent venue with just nine points taken from the weekend, he’s now 81 points adrift of leader Tommy Bridewell.

“The weekend started out well and it was looking promising, we topped the first practice, the pace and everything was consistent throughout practice,” he said.

>>> 2023 BSB Championship Standings <<<

“Even in qualifying we had a last-minute shower and we were on the front row for the first race. But then it seemed everything turned bad and sour.”

“In the first race, I can only image we had a bad tyre or something as the bike just didn’t perform in wet conditions. We got a poor result, which meant I had a bad position on the grid for the first dry race on Sunday.”

“I made up a couple of places, but not enough to be satisfied. We tried to make something of the final race, but I got squeezed in the first turn, which ended up in a crash – so I have nothing really good to take away from the weekend.

"We’re frustrated, annoyed - all the emotions you can have. We’ll now regroup ahead of Thruxton and hope we can turn it around there.”