Josh Brookes’ second win also boosted his podium count to 11 for the season.

British Superbike Championship (BSB) title contender Josh Brookes battled to the final race victory in the weekend’s Oulton Park triple header, described by Tyco Suzuki team manager Philip Neill as one of the best races of the Aussie’s international career.

By his standards Brookes made a slow start to the weekend, attempting to ride around a bike setup issue that would continue to hamper him in the first two races.

He salvaged fourth in the opener before finding his footing in race two, pushing eventual winner Shane Byrne to the line for a hard-fought second.

The Australian rider would not be denied in the third, this time holding off Byrne to take his first win at the Cheshire circuit, and his second for the year.

Neill recognised the issues that Brookes had to contend with early on and was pleased to see his rider get up for the win to round out a challenging weekend.

“We always said that Josh is a racer,” said Neill. “We did have a slow start to the weekend with a problem that was later traced to a fuel injector.

“It significantly hampered Josh and his crew from finding the perfect set-up at the start of the weekend, but as usual his crew worked their magic and turned the bike around for race day and Josh excelled once again on his GSX-R1000 Superbike.

“He rode perhaps one of the best races of his BSB career today to capture his first win at Oulton Park.”

Brookes grit his teeth in the initial stages of battle and said he was determined to end the weekend on a high note.

“In the end we had the package sorted on the GSX-R1000 and when it works I can ride to my true potential as I showed today,” said Brookes.

“It was a real battle but I wasn’t prepared to lose that one and we now go to Caldwell looking for more podium credits as the all-important Showdown edges closer.”

Brookes sits second on the BSB points ladder, and significantly, is one of three riders now confirmed in the six-rider ‘Title Fight’ to end the season.