The Milwaukee Yamaha team are in a confident mood ahead of round two of the 2015 MCE British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.
The team left the opening round at Donington Park having gained their first podium finish with the brand new Yamaha R1, with Josh Brookes finishing third in race one.
Brookes was battling for another podium in race two before having to take evasive action in order to avoid Ryuichi Kiyonari’s Buildbase BMW, which had crashed right in front of him.
Brookes battle back through the field and ended up with an impressive sixth place finish, which leaves him in fourth position in the championship.
Looking ahead to Brands Hatch, Brookes said: “I think we should be pretty good at Brands Hatch because we have ridden Alcarras in Spain when the bike was new, and then we went to Cartagena, then we went to Donington Park for the test and then the race. Throughout that period we have made a lot of changes to the bike, but it has reacted consistently over the different tracks we have gone to so I think we should be able to go to Brands Hatch and not have to turn everything upside down with the setting.
“It will still be tough at Brands Hatch, all of the teams will get stronger and we will have a lot of competition on the track, so we have to improve at a faster rate than them and hopefully because we are on a new bike I think it will improve. Putting it all into the big picture we feel confident for Brands Hatch but we still have to take it day by day.”
Donington didn’t go quite as smoothly for Brookes’ teammate, Broc Parkes, with the former Moto GP rider finishing down in 16th place in race one, before crashing out of race two going through Goddards.
Parkes has achieved podium finishes one the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in the past but has never competed on the 1.2mile Indy track.
A hopeful Parkes said: “After Donington Park I really want to make up for it at Brands Hatch this weekend. Normally it is a good track for me, although I have never raced on the Indy layout. I have had good results in the past in the World Championship and when I was a wildcard before so I am hoping we can go there and use what we have learnt from the first round and hopefully be stronger again. It has all been positive so far, it is just that it didn’t quite work out at Donington.”
The team enjoyed a relatively good weekend at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit last year, with Brookes putting the Yamaha on pole before finishing second in race two.
