Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes went under his own lap record during the MCE British Superbike free practice sessions at the Snetterton 300 circuit, but the Bringelly rider found lack of grip to be an issue.
The Australian was only 0.1 seconds slower than reigning champion, PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne and in both sessions was pipped by the ZX-10R of Byrne, and he was one second off his out-right lap record that he set at the circuit during the official test a few weeks ago.
The conditions were much warmer the last time the BSB riders ventured on to the track, and they experienced much colder temperatures today and Brookes, along with his crew have been working hard to get the grip feeling back to a level that they are happy with.
“The tricky thing is that the grip level is down today compared to the test we had here so we have been riding around and trying to understand things. If we put the grip level back to where it was at the test, we would able to replicate what we did then,” said Brookes.
“When he had more grip it kind of disguised any set-up problems but they have been highlighted today with the lower grip. We have not made any changes, rather gathering information from me and from the data.
“We did a long run in the second session and the lap times were consistent and the bike was fairly kind to the tyres. We have been kind of steady as the bike is in a good range so it is hard to move away from that.”
“We have the idea to change the engine braking and to change the fork settings as the grip levels have uncovered some problems. The front wants to slide while basically the rear has more grip than the front. We need to work on that and hopefully we can get it equal then the bike will be better.”
