Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes celebrated his first double win in the 2014 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Thruxton, holding off his arch title rivals and triple champions Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne and Ryuichi Kiyonari with just 0.467s covering the top three in race two.
The Australian shrugged aside his disappointments of missing out on the podium in recent rounds as he proved he is ready to get his assault on the championship back on track as he bids to close down series leader Byrne.
Brookes fired ahead of Dan Linfoot from the local Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki team in the opener, then settled into rhythm to increase his lead over series leader Byrne who had pounded his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki into second place.
Brookes took the victory by four seconds and said: “Once I was in front I focused on the strengths of my bike and kept pushing as hard as I could where I was strong. I maintained good lap times and the gap just grew and grew. It was exciting for me to win that race and get some points back on Shakey.”
Byrne held off the determined challenges from Buildbase BMW rider Ryuichi Kiyonari to take second from his Japanese rival with Linfoot finishing fourth. Next time out, Byrne was keen to make amends, forging into and early lead, but the race was red-flagged because of an oil spill.
On the restart Byrne made another flying start ahead of Linfoot, but Brookes was determined and moved from fourth to second in one fell swoop at the Club Chicane and then a lap later passed Byrne at Seagrave. This time Brookes was unable to break the triple champions but the Australian still claimed his second victory of the day by 0.204s from Byrne and Kiyonari.
Brookes said: “The second race was so much harder with Shakey and Dan (Linfoot) in front of me battling and I didn’t want to caught up in anything. I threw caution to the wind, passing them and then got a small gap, but that came down to almost nothing. I think this double win proves we are ready to get this fight back on track for the championship.”
Linfoot continued his best performance of the season with a fourth place ahead of Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki’s Chris Walker and Jon Kirkham on the Halsall Bike Gear Kawasaki.
Results
Race one:
1: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha)
2: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +4.306s
3: Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +5.058s
4: Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki) +6.039s
5: Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +7.616s
6: Jakub Smrz (Millsport Ducati) +11.698s
Race two:
1: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha)
2: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.204s
3: Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) +0.467s
4: Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki) +3.343s
5: Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +7.734s
6: Jon Kirkham (Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki) +8.481s
Championship standings:
1: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 261
2: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 179
3: Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) 139
4: James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 124
5: Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 116
6: Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki) 116
