Josh Brookes has been crowned the 2018 Monster Energy ‘King of Brands’ after securing an impressive double around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.
Just like the opening race of the day, Brookes led the field into the first corner and was able to fend off a late challenge from Glenn Irwin on the Be Wiser Ducati. The gap was much closer in race two, with Irwin missing out by just +0.090s.
The double victory moves Brookes up into the top six showdown positions, in fourth spot, and the Australian is delighted to have race wins to his name in 2018. He commented:
“It was fantastic timing to get this double win in front of all the Yamaha fans in this R1 20th Anniversary race so I’m well happy to repay them with that. I knew I only had a small advantage so was really trying to hold on from the pressure from Glenn. Also, I’m a man of my word, so I’ll shave the moustache off after this double win!”
Brookes and Irwin were once again joined on the podium by championship leader Leon Haslam, with Jake Dixon also matching his result from race one in fourth spot.
Next up was Tarran Mackenzie, who bounced back from his disappointing crash in race one to take his best result in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship so far.
Christian Iddon took his second top six finish of the day, whilst Tommy Bridewell also recuperated from his crash earlier in the day to finish seventh for the Moto Rapido Ducati team – their best result of the season.
Danny Buchan had to settle for eighth after losing out to Bridewell on the final lap, with James Ellison and Peter Hickman completing the top 10.
The day’s result leave championship leader Haslam on 242 points, 80 clear of Dixon in second spot. Irwin is a further 17 points behind in third, with Brookes now only 15 points behind the top three.
Round seven of the 2018 British Superbike season will take place at Thruxton in two weeks time.
