Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes broke his own lap record on his way to pole during the MCE British Superbike qualifying session at Oulton Park, but it is tyre life which is of prime importance to the Australian native and getting the fastest lap of the day is just a “bonus.”
During the official test at the Cheshire track last week Brookes also set the fastest time, but he had significant tyre wear during the sessions. This has now been rectified after his team successfully changed the rear suspension of his R1, and the results were near perfect for the Bringelly rider.
“If it stays dry I believe the [fast] lap times could come during the race, but that’s not the most crucial point for us as the win is what is important and the lap times are a bonus and a bragging right. During the test we had quite significant wear on the tyre and even though we were happy about the lap time we were worried about the tyre life,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the circuit.
Brookes had his first chance to experience riding in the wet on his new bike yesterday, and even when he found the conditions ‘”tricky” he was still able to put down the quickest lap time in the rain. He is joined on the front row by his former team-mate Tommy Bridewell and PBM Kawasaki’s Stuart Easton, but he is not going to think about what everyone is doing and will concentrate on his own race, so that he can fight for the victory.
“It was good yesterday to ride the bike for the first time in the wet and I was a bit apprehensive but it turned out to be quite good, and then Broc fell off and that made me feel apprehensive too - the conditions were tricky but the bike rode well, and I got the fastest time in the wet and dry today.
The 1’34’s laps were quite significant and the soft tyre looks good and the wear pattern is much better than we had at the test - so to be in the 1’34’s again after the rain is good. We changed the rear suspension, not a lot but a small change does have a big affect and that’s what’s given us the better tyre conditions.
“I can see Tommy has a real attitude towards me after being team-mates last year and now moving to another team. I think Tommy thinks too much about what I am doing instead of worrying about his own race and I don’t think that’s healthy for him in the long term but that’s his own racing life and he can chose what he wants to do. I will just focus on my own race and it doesn’t matter about the riders who are around me - I just want to make the best judgement as the race progresses to finish as strong as I can.”
