Josh Brookes victorious at Brands

Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes produced a stunning display to win the opening British Superbike race earlier today at Brands Hatch. The Australian, who now heads to Japan to compete in the Suzuka 8-hour race next weekend, made his intentions clear from the opening laps, and when championship leader Shane Byrne crashed out after attempting a pass on Brookes, it was a matter of holding off Alex Lowes until the chequered flag.

In race two Brookes suffered a lack of grip and had to settle for fourth place.

In British Supersport Taylor Mackenzie demonstrated his brand of middleweight talent, running top six in the early laps of the opening encounter. Unfortunately the youngster crashed out on lap three but produced a top ten result [10th] in race two from twelfth place on the grid – and like Jacobsen is now looking to push forward to the next level at Oulton Park.

Josh Brookes:

“Winning the first race felt really good; that goes without saying, although I do feel I’ve been riding as hard as the guys who have been winning all season. I try hard in every race, but more than anything I’m really proud of the team. At each round we keep making progress and I’ve also been trying to improve my riding. I was struggling for grip at the end of the race and had some big slides but we held on for the win. In the second race we never changed and thing on the bike, but I just had no grip, so what can I say.”

Philip Neill – Team Manager:

“As we said before coming here, it wasn’t just about winning at all costs. In saying that, Brands is a key circuit and we come back here for the final part of Showdown in the championship, so it is an important factor showing that we can win around here. It was good to see Josh taking that first race to Shakey, and going on to take the win. The second race wasn’t so easy for us and we haven’t determined yet whether it was increased track temperature, but Josh certainly didn’t have the same level of grip to race one.