Australia’s Josh Brookes packed the first punch by powering in two scorching laps to push ahead of home hero Shane ‘Shakey” Byrne in the opening MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship free practice sessions on the legendary Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.
Byrne had been leading the session by just 0.008s before Milwaukee Yamaha’s Brookes out-powered Byrne with a flying lap of 1m 26.565s as he prepares for the races with the sole focus on beating Byrne to close the deficit in the championship standings.
Brookes said: “Today wasn’t perfect, but it has gone fairly well because we are at the top of the times. We made some changes to the bike between sessions and then finished the day quite happy so I feel satisfied ahead of qualifying tomorrow.”
Byrne is the local hero and has won six of the eight races so far onboard the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki. The triple title-winner though is ready to fight back in qualifying, he said: “Overall it has been a pretty good day and we have done some good work, there is still more to be done, but we know we will be ready for qualifying.”
Brookes and Byrne are gearing up for an international scrap for supremacy in Kent, however James Ellison, was also closing in on the Lloyds British GB. The Kendal-based rider was narrowly ahead of Ryuichi Kiyonari and John Hopkins.
Tommy Bridewell ran seventh fastest, just ahead of Czech Republic rider Jakub Smrz riding the Millsport Ducati with five different manufacturers featuring in the top ten.
Free practice one:
- James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 1m 26.978s
- Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.385s
- Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.474s
- Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +0.496s
- Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +0.505s
- John Hopkins (Tyco Suzuki) +0.621s
Free practice two:
- Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 1m 26.565s
- Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.253s
- James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +0.336s
- Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +0.379s
- John Hopkins (Tyco Suzuki) +0.536s
- Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.742s
Milwaukee Yamaha Report
Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes kicked off the fifth round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch by setting the pace to hold off standings leader Shane Byrne by 0.253s.
Brookes had been 0.008s adrift of Byrne in the closing stages of the session, but in the final two laps of the second free practice, the Milwaukee Yamaha rider pulled the pin to go straight to the top. Brookes had been building momentum throughout the two sessions and is confident ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session.
Tommy Bridewell ended the opening day sixth fastest as he resolved an earlier problem to set a short run of faster laps in the final moments of the afternoon session. Bridewell is fully focused on trying to secure his first front row start of the season.
Brookes said: “Today has not been completely perfect, but it has gone fairly well really – we are at the top of the times. In the first session we started on the SC1 tyre as I normally use that one for the race and only use the SC0 on the odd occasion. But with the temperature being as hot as it was today it was the ideal environment for the SC0, so for the second session we made some more changes and we were able to do consistent and good lap times. It wasn’t perfect as I said before, but I am fairly satisfied with how we have ended today with a really good, consistent run and the fastest time.”
Bridewell said: “Today wasn’t completely plain sailing but we turned it around. This morning was nice and steady and we started to build for the weekend. This afternoon though we had a problem with the front tyre, I was pushing hard and I kept losing the front. We changed some settings and that didn’t work, but then we went back out on track on a new tyre and we were completely back to where we knew we should be. I only had four laps at the end for a real shot of a time, so to still end up where we are with the problem we had was no mean feat.”
