Josh Brookes overcomes technical issue

Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes overcame a technical issue with his R1 in the final MCE British Superbike race at Snetterton to fight back to snatch second place from Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran.

The Bringelly rider was riding high and fighting for the race win, but fell off the pace halfway through and had to claw his way back from outside the top five, and ended up two seconds off the pace of the leading group.

He experienced a problem which felt like his wheel had locked up, and he lost power and found it difficult to ride and kept missing the apexes. But he battled through the issue by changing his riding style, and his rhythm by not braking too hard and not over revving the bike – and it worked.

With a handful of laps remaining Brookes found the added pace he needed and overtook JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison, Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty and O’Halloran to snatch his consecutive second place finish at the Norfolk track.

“There was an issue. Normally with the bike - the limited electronics we have really work most on engine braking and you can go through the gears really quickly and the electronics and engine monitor how much the wheel should slip and adjust accordingly, so the bike stays reasonably smooth and straight, on the way in,” said Brookes, speaking at the track.

“But mid way through the race I just started locking up the tyre – not completely locking up but really dragging the tyre and I kept missing the apexes and losing power, and there was definitely something electronically going wrong.

“After a couple of laps I figured out a way to ride without using the engine to slide the bike so much on the way in, so I started braking a bit earlier and tried not to rev the engine too hard, but I was able to come pack through the pack.

“But I had to ride differently and when it started it upset my rhythm, but I was fortunate to finish the race because at one point I thought it was going to get worse, so I had to be gentle with it to finish the race.”

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