Thruxton BSB: Brookes ‘more confident’ about race than qualifying

Anvil TAG Yamaha’s Josh Brookes is more confident about his race pace in tomorrow’s MCE British Superbike at Thruxton than he was in qualifying, despite grabbing a front-row start with a 1’14.2s lap.

The Australian thought he ruined his Superpole lap after running wide going into the last chicane, so he was pleasantly surprised when he saw a 1’14.256 on his dash and was sitting on provisional pole, until Jake Dixon went two-tenths faster pushing the Bringelly man Brookes down to second.

Brookes is positive ahead of the track activities tomorrow as he has good form in the past of performing better in the races, than in the qualifying sessions, and won both outings in 2015 when he last raced here.

“I had a really nice start to the laps and I felt I was on good form and carrying that extra speed into the last chicane I kind of ran a little bit wide, not a lot but enough to give me some concern on the entry,” said Brookes.

“I managed to recover it quite nicely through the chicane and the exit was OK and I thought I ruined my lap in the last sector and then I crossed the line I saw a 14.2. I thought that’s not a bad lap and reasonably quite good.

“Then Jake did a good lap - perfect and deservedly takes the pole. For the race I am more confident in than in qualifying and quietly confident about the race tomorrow. I think we can put in a strong performance.”