Tyco Suzuki rider Josh Brookes found the added pace and confidence he needed to battle for the victory in the second MCE British Superbike race at Oulton Park. The Australian was only three quarters of a second behind the eventual race winner Shane Byrne and was also able to fend off charges from Samsung Honda’s Alex Lowes.

Brookes and his team made some major changes to his bike from race one, which improved his performance in race two. The set-up of the bike did not work with the tyres earlier in the day, but the issue was resolved and Brookes has re-gained his confidence.

“We made big changes between race one and race two. We were disappointed I dropped back in race one, as the tyre lost performance and I really dropped back. It was not the tyre that was to blame it was just the set-up didn’t allow the tyre to keep working later in the race. Race two I was able to stick with it all the way to the end, and we were able to keep the tyre working later in the race, so the credit goes to the team for giving me a great opportunity,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“When I have got confidence on the bike I can push right to the end and even win races. That is what we are trying to achieve every weekend. We never loose faith that we can be first, or at least fight for the win at every round, as that is the goal in mind when we come to every track. We will keep working and to try and achieve that result today more regularly.”