Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes stuck to his race SC1 rear tyre for today’s MCE British Superbike qualifying session at Thruxton and bagged a front-row start while his main competition all used the softer SC0 option.
Brookes believes that the more laps he could muster on the tyre with which he will race was the best way forward in an attempt to claw back valuable points on runway series leader Shane Byrne, who is on the second row for the first time this year.
“Yesterday, I was quite a long way down the times and normally that would make me quite nervous but I had run with a short wheelbase bike and short gearing which I liked but it didn’t have the performance,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the circuit.
“I knew that we had the time to adjust it to get the best from it and I knew the combination would give me the feeling I wanted and the pull from the engine with the correct gearing and then bam we were fast in the wet this morning and then again this afternoon.
“I am bit disappointed I didn’t try the SC0 tyre that most people had on for qualifying but I thought it was more valuable to get more laps with the tyre we are going to race on as that is what I need to do to win some races and challenge Byrne for the championship so to get second on that tyre is a good achievement.”
Brookes has also admitted that his two forays to Japan for testing and racing at Suzuka probably affected his performance in the last two rounds but said it is business as usual from here on it.
“The last couple of rounds haven’t gone that well for me and I have been looking for reasons why and how to improve. I really love the Suzuka Eight-Hours race but I think now that the flying backwards and forwards and racing and testing has affected my performance.Now that is all behind me and I am focused on BSB for the rest of the season and we are straight back into a strong position.”
