Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing’s Josh Brookes took his first podium for Suzuki at the Snetterton 300 British Superbike Championship round on Sunday with second place in race two, jumping into a provisional Shoot Out top-six position.

Brookes has had a difficult start to the year since joining Suzuki for 2011, however he’s gaining comfort in the GSX-R1000 and says he’s satisfied with his first podium of the year.

Despite experiencing a problem and racing to seventh in race one, Brookes is now certain results will come.

“Now I’ve got something to smile about! In race one we just didn’t have the grip we’d been having in qualifying and free practice,” Brookes commented. “I knew from lap one that we had a problem, but I did the best I could, although I was disappointed as we had been so strong up to that point.

“I really do believe we could have had the same result in race one that we had in race two. I was riding past pit wall looking at the guys knowing they would be thinking, ‘oh no our luck hasn’t changed’, so there was a sigh of relief when I came in and told them what was wrong.

“Race two is the first opportunity I’ve had this year to show people what I can really do on the GSX-R1000 Suzuki and there’s more to come. We really do have more room for improvement.

“I did expect to move forward this weekend but jumping into the top six is a bonus. We’ve just got to get out there now and make the results and the rest will happen.”

Brookes took advantage of a last lap clash between American John Hopkins and former BSB champion Shane Byrne to score the result.