Reigning British Superbike Champion Josh Brookes came away from Oulton Park’s opening round in an unfamiliar position having failed to finish higher than sixth in the three races – but that sixth place in Sunday’s final race left him feeling a lot more upbeat.

The Australian had won at the venue in both 2019 and 2020 so was confident of getting the defence of his crown up and running with some strong results but practice and qualifying showed that wasn’t going to be possible and in all three races he found himself starting from outside the top ten.

“We felt confident we had the package to come here and challenge for the wins but that didn’t happen and even using last year’s settings when I could win and lap in the 1’34s bracket didn’t help,” explained Brookes.

“I haven’t been able to get the drive out of corners I need and although the answer to that is to pick the bike up earlier, you can’t do that until you’ve got a certain way round the corner otherwise you’d be in the gravel trap.”

However, in the manner of true champions, Brookes, crew chief Ryan Rainey and the PBM team continued to work and although he still wasn’t comfortable with the Ducati in Sunday’s races, he was able to make strides forward especially in the last race.

“Sixth is a small consolation but we made a step forward with the set up for Sunday’s races and the bike was the best it had been all weekend in the final race. It’s important to always think about the positives and irrespective of the position, I got a decent feeling with the bike again.

“I actually felt like I could be aggressive and attack into the corners and by doing that, the confidence slowly returned. I got further up the field and scored more points but I’ve created a bit of a challenge for myself.

“I certainly wasn’t comfortable finishing in tenth place on Saturday with the number one plate on the bike so we’ve got some hard work ahead but that will make the feeling sweeter when we get back on top.”