Former MCE British Superbike Champion took pole position and a win in the opening day of action at the Australian FX-Superbike final at Sydney Motorsport Park, riding for the SA Kawasaki BCperformance team.

The Australian, who is standing in for the injured Ben Burke, was 1.7s faster during qualifying but had to make up for a poor start to win race one. In the second outing, he was taken out by a rival but re-joined to finish fourth. Brookes will be back on track again tomorrow.

“Day one on track was made difficult by heavy rain which continued to the final race. I qualified on pole, but a bad start in meant I had to make passes to get back in the lead. I then pushed to pull a gap and won the race comfortably,” said Brookes.

“By race two the track was dry enough to race cautiously on slicks. I started on pole again but the start of the race was my first time on a ‘dry’ set up, I lost two seconds trying to get comfortable and went back to fourth. I found my groove and quickly worked forwards to the front again, making a pass to take the lead but unfortunately was knocked off by a move from a rival.

“I rejoined the race and finished fourth. It was good to be joined by friends and family today as it’s been a long time since I raced In Australia. Looking forward to tomorrow now.”