Australian Broc Parkes is standing in for the injured John Hopkins in the ePayMe Yamaha team, and it is his first taste this year of the MCE British Superbike paddock, as he made his return to Snetterton this week.
Parkes had a goal to be inside the top ten quickest times, and he certainly achieved that today, setting a 1’48.715, and was only 0.5s off the fastest lap.
The endurance rider has just landed in the UK after completing a test in Suzuka, but now he wants to make an impact in the BSB series this race weekend, and is feeling confident that he can do a good job for his team.
“Soon as I hopped on this bike straight away it felt like what I know from the Yamaha and I even surprised myself to be doing the times that I was doing. It feels good to be back here doing these times, so I am definitely out to try and do a good job,” said Parkes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.
“My realistic goal was to be the top ten and I didn’t expect to be there so quick. I feel good on the bike so maybe we can change the benchmark a bit, but if I can be in the top ten to come in and fill in then that would be good.
“It went really good, the test in Suzuka. We are on Pirelli out there so we are a little bit on the back foot but because we have Pirelli’s full time in the Endurance Championship we have to be loyal to them and run Pirelli, and it is not so easy in Bridgestone and Dunlop’s backyard, but lap time wise we were quite good.
“The Japanese riders are struggling a little bit as they are used to riding on Bridgestone’s, but even out there we had a good pace.”
