ASSEN BSB CHAMPIONSHIP NO LONGER A CONSIDERATION FOR BROOKES

By BSB desk Image by Impact Images Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes has given up on winning this year’s championship after a nightmare weekend as Assen saw him leave Holland with no points to his name and only a mathematical chance of wresting the big trophy away from either Shane Byrne or Ryuichi Kiyonari. A crash in the tricky conditions of race one and a broken clutch in race two saw his gap to series leader Byrne grow to 51 points with only 125 left on the table over five races at Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Brookes now says he counts himself as one of the non-title fighters and will now take each race on its own merit and forget about the championship table… "The weekend had no positive side at this point. A series of different problems had plagued the team and I from the outset. Even when there was some light at the end of the tunnel I was able to steal defeat from the jaws of victory,” said Brookes. “My championship has just become very simple. There is no longer a reason to waste energy worrying about the points tally or be strategic in the races to stay out of trouble. I'm the same out there as all the non-Title Fighters. Races are now thought of individually and with no championship consideration. “In race one I had to start from the back of the grid as I entered the pit lane. At the start of the race I felt good and everything was going well until turn four. I thought ‘I can go round people’ and I started to accelerate, until I ran straight in to the back of Kirkham - he just didn’t accelerate and I fell off. I always seem to make things difficult for myself every year, but it is what it is. - See more at: http://www.bikesportnews.com/news-detail.cfm?newstitle=Assen-BSB:-Championship-%E2%80%98no-longer-a-consideration%E2%80%99-for-Brookes&newsid=13054#sthash.b9bN1sL4.dpuf