Milwaukee Yamaha's Josh Brookes had a one hundred percent podium success rate during the MCE British Superbike race weekend at Oulton Park, and the Bringelly rider is feeling more confident onboard his R1, and it showed.
The Australian was close to taking the victory, but missed out on by a few tenths to his former team-mate Tommy Bridewell and in the final race Brookes fought back after a poor start to clinch third, after rivals PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne and Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari crashed out.
“The first race I rode really well and I didn’t make many mistakes and I learnt a lot about the bike and where its strength and weaknesses are, and we are learning important things in the bike to give me more confidence. The positive thing is that the changes we are making, make sense,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com.
“It is quite refreshing to have a clear direction with the bike, and we have a lot to learn in the early season. We didn’t have the set up for race two and I had a bad start but I couldn’t pass anyone – then seeing my main rivals Byrne and Kiyo crash out and not capitalize on that and get maximum points is annoying, but I am pleased to get third.”
His team are still learning about his new R1 and are still waiting for new parts, on what is ultimately a stock machine and Brookes believes these changes are crucial so that he can advance up the rostrum to get the win for his team.
Brookes said: “The top group was so competitive and I was pleased to get a third but a little bit disappointed not to get better results in the final race. Yamaha are working hard to get some extra parts for us in the break [in time for the Snetterton test]. I think one of the key elements for me is to get the fuel tank because at the moment we are doing every method we can to get the fuel tank as full as it can be before the start of the race so we can make the race distance and we barely have a litre left when we finish the race. If the pace car comes out and there are extra laps added them like we had at Brands then if we run out of fuel before the end of the race then that will be embarrassing.
“The down side to the tank being maximized to full is that the weight is at the top where the fuel cap is, and the start of the race is a real challenge to ride consistently as its quite awkward at the start. I think with the bigger capacity fuel tank it will hold the weight of the fuel lower in the bike and that will give me better confidence for the start of the race. We thought we would have it this weekend and there was an idea of flying someone out from Germany to bring it but it wouldn’t be fair to have one tank for one rider and not the other – so for Snetterton we should have two tanks for me and Broc, and we should be able to test them to see if they work in theory.
“The other thing is the linkage and swing-arm, we have some ideas with them, and they have all got to work in conjunction with each other. The only thing we can’t change is the link as it hasn’t been manufactured yet and I don’t think that will be available in Snetterton as there is a lot of development that needs to go on. So to improve on that it takes a lot of time and precise refinements to make an improved version. At the start of the year they said it would take a couple of months before that material will be available so we will focus on small marginal gains. So if we start with the new fuel tank then we can keep making small improvements and the package can only get better.”
