After waiting six rounds for a victory in the 2015 MCE British Superbike Championship, Josh Brookes now has two after completing the double at Brands Hatch.
The newly crowned ‘King of Brands’ put in another great performance to get the better of Shane Byrne, who had recovered from his huge crash in race one.
The duo were joined on the podium by Richard Cooper, who showed once again that he can compete at the very top on his Anvil Hire Tag Racing Kawasaki. This was by far the best race meeting of the season for the 32-year-old, who hadn’t been out of the top five throughout the weekend.
James Ellison was next up in fourth place after a battle with Michael Laverty in the latter stages of the race. Laverty’s teammate, Tommy Bridewell, was involved in the battle for fourth until he crashed out on lap 12 at Surtees.
Billy McConnell was next up in sixth on his Smith Racing BMW, just ahead of Luke Mossey who continued to impress and equalled his seventh place from race one – which was his best result of the season so far.
Christian Iddon (8th), Jason O’Halloran (9th) and Broc Parkes, who only had arm pump surgery last week in Barcelona, rounded out the top 10.
As the riders made their way back onto the grid after their warm-up lap Brookes teased the fans of going for the ‘King Of Brands’ Challenge before deciding against it and moving back into his original grid slot.
Just like in race one it was Byrne who made the best start and managed to keep the lead away from Brookes going through the hairpin. Behind them, Cooper had made a slow start and initially fell back behind Ellison and into fourth before fighting back going through Surtees.
Byrne was unable to pull away at the front and the top five were all relatively close together in the early stages of the race. Bridewell had joined the top five battle after dispatching John Hopkins going down Paddock Hill Bend.
Brookes waited until lap eight to make his move, going down the inside of Byrne at the Hairpin just as he did in the first race of the day.
Behind the top two Bridewell continued to move up the field as he made a move on Ellison for fourth position, after the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider appeared to make a mistake on lap 10. A couple of laps later however Bridewell’s race came to an end as he lost the front going into Surtees.
In the latter stages of the race Byrne’s second place came under a lot of pressure from Cooper, who had pulled away from Ellison and Laverty. Despite Cooper’s best efforts he was unable to put a move on the championship leader and had to settle for third position.
Ahead of them Brookes had pulled out a strong lead and took the chequered flag once again for the second time in 2015.
Today’s results now mean that Brookes has closed the championship lead of Byrne’s to just five points at the half-way stage of the season.
Brands Hatch Race Two Results
[table id=481 /]
