Imola WSBK: Brookes spends Friday re-learning track

Milwaukee BMW’s Josh Brookes spent the first day of World Superbike free practice at Imola re-learning the parkland circuit as he hasn’t ridden here for ten years but found a chunk of time in free practice two which is a step in the right direction.

Brookes started the day using his setup from Assen, where he led on a drying track, but found that it simply isn’t working on the S1000RR, so the team are analysing data this evening to see in which direction they need to push.

I was surprised by how difficult the track was to learn again. I thought as I had been here before, I knew the track and it won’t be so difficult. I remembered where it went but when you arrive at a corner at 150mph it’s more important to know where to place your wheels as opposed to whether it’s a left or right, so re-learning at speed took a while,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track

“Naturally, we started where we left off at Assen but this track is more like Brands Hatch. If you left Assen and went to Silverstone, you could use the same settings, but if you left Assen and went to Brands Hatch you need to make changes, so that’s where we are at. Optimistically, I wanted to try the bike the way we left it as it felt good at Assen but the setting just doesn’t work here.

“In the concept of what you would do for Brands, you would go heavier with springs front and rear, but also lengthen the bike but with gearing we haven’t been able to do that so there is a compromise to try and work out how to get he feeling I had at Assen and optimistic isn’t enough.”