JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Luke Mossey was hampered by ‘brake fade’ during the opening MCE British Superbike race at Brands Hatch.

But it was a good start to the weekend for the ZX-10RR lad and he qualified in second. After a strong start he suffered brake issues and had to drop further down the pack. A similar problem happened to Mossey at Snetterton as halfway through the race he experienced the same feelings with the Kawasaki.

The rain started to fall in race one and Mossey was feeling comfortable until this issue arose. In the end he finished in 12th. For race two his crew made some changes and it appeared to have worked, and he was locked in a battle for fifth with team-mate, Leon Haslam.

Mossey did not have the best of starts in the final race and was left with quite a lot of work to do, but he did end the day in a much better position than in the race one, with a sixth place finish. The Cambridgeshire rider is now second in the championship standings.

“I seemed to be having issues all weekend but my team worked really hard for qualifying and despite the torrential downpour, I was looking forward to it. I dug deep to qualify in second place and I got a good start in race one,” said Mossey.

“I had a little rain on my visor but I wasn’t fazed by it - I felt really comfortable at the front and was eager for a strong result. From the half-way point, I started to suffer with brake fade like I did at Snetterton. It is too fast at Brands to risk anything so I backed off and dropped down the field, I had to finish in 12th which I was so disappointed about.

“We made a few changes for race two with the brakes and thanks to my team, who kept persevering trying to find the problem, I felt like I was back on ‘my bike’ again. This gave me the confidence to push hard again but I got boxed in the opening turns and left myself a lot of work to do. Despite finishing in sixth, which is not where I wanted to be, I’m happy we’ve found the problem and can hopefully do better at Thruxton.”

Team manager Jack Valentine added: “Luke qualified really well in conditions he isn’t 100% confident with and we were hoping for good things from the race with a front row start. He was riding exceptionally well and was looking set for another podium but sadly a brake problem halted his chances. The team managed to get the problem fixed in race two but he got boxed in during the opening few laps and had to settle for sixth.”