Tyco Suzuki's Josh Brookes took seventh place in his first ever road race at yesterday's Vauxhall North West 200 Superstock opener despite starting from the second wave and running off track at University corner.

The British Superbike title contender got his head down from the start and put in the third fastest overall lap of the race to finish in front of old hands like Michael Rutter and Cameron Donald on corrected time.

“We are improving and improving on the Superstock bike every time we ride it, but I have to remember, the first time I’d ever ridden the bike was when we rolled up here at the start of the week. I’ve just made changes in a step-by-step process and that’s for personal feel, but the engine performance of the GSX-R1000 has been very good and I can draft past people easy enough," said the Bringelly man.

“In the race I started from the second group, which I wasn’t that happy about as I wanted to use some of the other fast guys as a gauge, as I’m still struggling to know some of the braking points off the fast straights. I did get the holeshot in my group and led into University, but I ran on and it took me a while to get it turned.

“I had to fight through the traffic then and felt disappointed that a great opportunity had been lost. I just put my head down and got quicker and quicker, lap-by-lap. The first lap through Station Corner, which is quite intimidating, was a matter of building it up; then on my last flying lap I almost kept it flat through there, which is what you’ve got to do. It took me five laps to learn it.

“Now I can look back and say it was a great race and the boys worked really hard to give me a great bike. I only made one small mistake, which is acceptable as I’m new to this and it is tough trying to learn the track in the wet. I think there is still a lot more to come from me. No I’m not riding the track as good as the front guys just yet, but with more time I can get up there, but I’m really enjoying the experience.”