Brookes back for more
Former BSB champ re-united with Yamaha and ready to start winning
‘Going to a smaller team in BSB you have much more control over your destiny’
Josh Brookes and Yamaha’s R1 were a fearsome combination in 2015 when he cruised to his first MCE British Superbike title after a bitter battle with Shane Byrne. Brookes’ domination was perhaps the only time during BSB’s Showdown era that the series has been a one-man show with the Aussie taking 13 wins from the last 16 races of the season. Brookes is returning to BSB after a dismal year on the world stage to join the Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha squad. While the team’s pedigree is questionable – they only scored three points with James Rispoli last year – Brookes’ initial feedback has been positive. “The general DNA of the bike is the same as the one I rode in 2015,” Brookes explains. “You can’t take the character away from the Yamaha! When I rode the TAG bike for the first time it felt the same as any other Yamaha I’d ridden.” Coming from a tough year in WSB, Brookes seems to be looking forward to taking a more hands-on approach having signed up to one of the smaller teams in the BSB paddock. “Sometimes in bigger teams you feel that both your and the team’s hands are tied,” he explains. “It becomes frustrating because you can’t make the changes you’re confident would help, so the benefit of going to a smaller team is that you have much more control over your own destiny. “In a BSB team, it’s very much the rider and a crew which determines what will be done with a bike, as opposed to say MotoGP where there’s a whole factory working on it. That gives you the freedom to make choices.” Joining a smaller team does have the drawback that there’ll be no support from the manufacturer unlike the new McAMS Yamaha team of James Ellison and Michael Laverty. However, Brookes feels this shouldn’t be an issue thanks to BSB’s strict technical rules. “Like or dislike those who run BSB, they’ve done a good job at creating par- ity in the series. It doesn’t matter what bike you’re on or which team you’re with, you’ve got a chance of being with the top guys if you’re good enough.” While there’s no doubt that Brookes is more than capable of fighting Byrne and Haslam, we’ll need to wait to see if the bike is up to the job. The other factor is how far things have moved on since Brookes departed in 2015. Last year saw the fastest ever BSB laps at seven of the 10 circuits the series visits. He’s a longshot, but a good longshot!