Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes is confident his used-tyre pace will be good enough to challenge for top honours at tomorrow’s Snetterton MCE British Superbike double-header after rain in qualifying put paid to planned extra setup work.

Brookes was quickest in testing at the Snetterton test but so far this weekend, track temperatures have been substanially lower, forced the Bringelly rider to work on a different setup to find grip on his preferred Pirelli SC0.

“The test was in high temperature conditions and the bike was working really well. So far, the conditions have been colder so I haven’t had the same amount of grip from the SC0 that I am used to so the balance the feel haven’t been the same,” said Brookes, speaking to bikesportnews.om at the track.

“We have the setup for warmer conditions in the bank, so the idea has been to find an alternative for the cooler conditions to see if we can improve it a little. We had another shock setting we wanted to try which didn’t immediately make a difference but it has a particular feel that I like, a more damped feel instead of a spring feel.

“But it has a harder feeling too. It doesn’t have the edge grip or steering so you can hold on to the thing you like but sometimes it can be a hindrance to other thing. We wanted to keep working with it but then the rain appeared.

“I was expecting the track to dry up but is wasn’t totally dry and the harder feeling of the shock took some confidence away in the damp conditions in which I am usually strong. I’m not letting one session affect what has been a positive weekend so far.

“In all the other aspects, certainly sector times and pace on tyres that have ten or more laps on, we are very strong. I haven’t thrown on a new rear at the end of the session to be the last lap hero. We will work some more on the cooler setting in the morning if the temperature is still down or switch to the warm setup if it gets higher.