BROOKES GETS ENGINE SPEC BOOST
Aussie back in the mix thanks to engine advice from Yamaha
O Yamaha factory finally unlock R1’s potential,
Having joined the factorybacked McAMS Yamaha squad for 2018, Josh Brookes headed into this year’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship as one of the favourites for the title. A challenging first few rounds saw the Aussie way off the pace and unable to run at the front, but a left-field attempt at turning things around for Snetterton this weekend enabled Brookes to be back where he should be. Benefitting from an engineer from Yamaha’s race HQ in Italy at Snetterton, Brookes and the McAMS team took a giant leap forward which enabled the 2015 champion to come within 0.1s of the win in the second race despite being down on top speed compared to Leon Haslam’s Kawasaki.
The progress has come from a switch to a less conventional engine spec, which boasts a more aggressive character than the smoother, higher top speed motor the team have run so far this year. “The only thing we changed for the weekend was trying this new engine spec,” Brookes explained. “I’d say it’s closer to a roadgoing engine, it follows a more conventional R1 power curve which doesn’t actually look too great on the dyno. It’s a bit more aggressive, but it seems I can ride it better and get the drive into the tyre a lot better and that’s helping me get off the turns. It is better balanced on a closed throttle and I can build speed from that. “All year I’ve been riding as hard as I ever have in the past and not getting the results. We’ve made a load of changes to try to find what was wrong and each time we thought we’d found something it just wouldn’t work. “The bike isn’t as quick in a straight line but there’s always a trade off with these things. I can ride the bike much more easily now, it feels more natural.” A fourth place in race one and third in race two after fighting for the win consolidated Brookes’ position in the all-important top six and if things can improve from here the Aussie’s title threat is far from over. In his 2015 titlewinning year, he didn’t take his first win until Brands Hatch in July and from there he went on to dominate.
“What fills me with confidence is that we now know what brings the best performance,” Brookes told MCN. “So far this year we’ve been grasping at straws, thinking we’d found something and then being disappointed. But now we’ve nailed it, we’ve found the key ingredient to making the package work better. Now we can refine suspension and things like that. We had been working on that earlier in the year but got nowhere. Now we have the engine working better, we can revisit the suspension side of things.”
‘I can ride it better and get the drive’