Josh Brookes was a British Superbike winner for the primary time since 2023, which additionally got here at Oulton Park, bringing a primary win for the DAO Racing group within the course of as he took dangers that outsmarted everybody within the opening race.
The climate performed an enormous half – the primary begin was stopped after just some corners asbthe heavens opened, which started the stress of the tyre gamble on the grid.
Brookes gained huge time, fixing his DAO Racing Honda with intermediates, the previous champion defined his pondering after the race:
“We simply appeared on the climate that had come by means of and it was a small bathe that didn’t actually saturate the observe. So the rain, the water that was down, wasn’t going to be lasting. So though it was declared a moist race, , I didn’t have a championship to defend or something, so I knew I might take a little bit of a danger and I felt strongly on the aspect of the intermediate tyre, could be the proper selection.”
Brookes was fast to test who else had made the selection which turned out to be impressed – with Haslam the one different intermediate shod rider:
“When all the heaters come off, I appeared over my shoulder and, , Leon was the one particular person on the grid I might see inside a brief distance that had the identical tyre selection as me. So I instantly thought, properly it’s going to be between Leon and I.
We set off and I used to be getting actually like, in battles with individuals, on the opening few laps, after which I used to be truly pondering to myself, there’s solely actually one particular person I’ve to fret about – that’s Leon.
So I don’t must get in a battle with all these individuals on wets, the change goes to return in our favour”
Brookes felt Haslam was higher within the damp situations, permitting him to return from additional again and go, then hole the Australian:
“Then abruptly Leon got here previous me and I felt like he was extra assured within the damper situations.
So I used to be attempting to make use of him as a gauge after which because the observe began to dry out extra I might really feel my tyre was getting hotter within the dry areas of the observe and it appeared like Leon wasn’t capable of draw back as a lot when it bought to these situations I began to catch him again after which it began to sprinkle with rain once more – and he gapped me once more.
So, it was actually extra clear once more that the cooler or damper situations weer favouring his bike, however then fortuitously, the rain went away – lastly -the previous couple of laps the observe was drying and the tyres have been getting scorching and I felt like I had a package deal that was working higher on these tyres.”
The race got here all the way down to a final lap battle between the 2 sequence veterans, and Brookes used a sudden transfer at Brittens to edge forward:
“Our tempo was so evenly matched so I didn’t assume, like, , a daily go was not going to be sufficient to make Leon simply settle for second, So I assumed I wanted to make a go in an unconventional place simply to catch him off guard – after which possibly achieve a few tenths.
So it wasn’t like a direct assault again within the subsequent flip. The final type of sector, , I simply took plenty of danger, I assume, in a manner – to verify he couldn’t assault again.
I used to be actually, clearly, , combating onerous to get this consequence. It’s not a traditional solution to win a race, however I don’t care. I didn’t know if I used to be ever going to get one other certainly one of these once more on my latest outcomes, so it’s simply good to be again up right here both manner.”
