Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes was ‘happily surprised’ with his MCE British Superbike race win this afternoon at Oulton Park. It was the Aussie's maiden victory at the Cheshire track, and after the problems with his bike on Friday the rider had all but given up hope for a top of the podium finish.
But his team worked hard after solving an injector issue, and for race two Brookes made his way up to the second step of the rostrum, and in race three the rider knew he could do even better. Brookes still had issues with the rear of his bike, but that was rectified for the final race and he found the confidence that he needed to push for the win.
“It is my first win here and it is good for us because it is on a track we normally never had success at, and at the start of this weekend on top of our regular performance we were quite down because of other problems. So to come away with a win it emphasises that we are improving, and the guys have been working none stop with the engine all year to try to make it the best to suit these rules and the championship, and this weekend the problems were related to suspension and chassis set up. But it shows the competition has to keep an eye out for us,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com from the circuit.
"At the start of the weekend I did not think I would win, but before the weekend begun I wanted to achieve success here and win all three races – that was the ultimate goal. But once I arrived here and got the free practice under way I realised that it was going to be a long journey to arrive at that point. Then after the first race it was a little bit disheartening because even though we fixed the problems I still was not happy with how the bike was setup and we hadn’t made the improvements that we needed to compared with other teams. But losing a bit of track time cost us that I believe.
"After the first race I didn’t think I could win unless something changed dramatically. After the first race today we had made big improvements. I felt a lot better with the front end and felt more confident and was able to get second. But I thought with another race to come I could change things. I was not disappointed with second, but then we focused on what we could do to make the bike better but the rear end of the bike was not working correctly. So for the second race today we did make a change and it worked for the better, the front was working as well as it had been, and the rear was working better and it felt that I had more grip in the exit to the corners.”
After his two podiums today Brookes has secured his spot in the Showdown, but that will not change how the rider continues for the rest of the season, and he wants to get more victories under his belt.
"I am happily surprised that the changes we made proved to be better on the track, as sometimes you make changes and it doesn’t work for you but it did and it made me in a position to challenge for a win, and I got it so I am really, really pleased."
