The sun shone at Donington Park across the weekend (17-19 May), as the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team were in action for the third round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.
Although the results were mixed with Josh Brookes coming away with a 10th, eighth and a DNF, the team are leaving the Leicestershire circuit positive after making a step forward with the set-up of the BMW M 1000 RR.
Faye Ho’s squad have been working to improve the feeling of the BMW machine and across the weekend a corner was turned with the chassis and electronics, where Josh was able to be back in the mix and chasing down the riders ahead of him.
Finishing Saturday’s opening 20-lap race in 10th, the Australian lined up 13th on the grid for Sunday’s 12-lap Sprint. Dropping back to 17th during the early stages of the race, Josh found his rhythm and started to make his way back through the pack, where he eventually crossed the line eighth and claimed the sixth fastest lap time, setting him up well for the last race.
With a good start position on the second row of the grid, the final race of the weekend was looking promising for the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team, and some early battles with his BSB rivals showed Josh to have strong pace. However, Josh’s race was cut short at the end of the fourth lap, where he crashed out, unhurt, from the running.
The FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team, with riders Josh and Peter Hickman will now turn their focus to the Isle of Man TT Races, which gets underway next week with first practice on Monday 27 May.
“I’m a bit downbeat after the final race, the lap time from the Sprint race meant I started on the second row for race three. I had an okay start and had to fight for positions on the first few laps, but everything felt good, and we were doing pretty well. But I had some brake problems where the lever was coming in closer and closer to my hand, I had an adjuster but I didn’t have the chance to adjust it before I had already crashed into the final turn of the lap. I was holding onto the brake, but it wasn’t stopping enough; I went in too deep to the corner with too much brake still on and lost the front. I obviously feel bad for the whole team; we were hoping for a good finish to the day in high spirits, but I fell off trying. We will come back, try harder and keep pushing forward. The weekend was a step in the right direction, we are making progress we just need everything to come together, and we need a better qualifying lap time so we can start the race already well within the front group.”
Josh Brookes #25
“The weekend has proved to be positive, but it was also a weekend not without its challenges; we had only Josh running after the decision was made to withdraw Pete [Hickman] to allow him to rest and recover ahead of our TT commitments next week. For Josh the weekend was a step in the right direction, we all know that Josh is capable of more, he’s a former two-time British Champion, so the results this year have not shown his, or our true potential. It has been a tough start to the season, but we’re now moving in the right direction, the guys seem to have found something and I’m sure it won’t be long until Josh is back up where he belongs. We have a few weeks now before the next round of the BSB championship, so we have some time to digest what was learnt over the weekend before we get to Knockhill. Of course, now with the break in BSB it means that it’s time for the Isle of Man TT Races; a huge event in our race calendar and one I know the whole team, as well as Josh and Peter can’t wait to get to and get going for first practice.”
Faye Ho Team Principal
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