Source: Supplied.

The initial shakedown of Milwaukee BMW’s brand new S 1000 RR World Superbike entry was a positive one for Josh Brookes at Jerez on Tuesday despite an afternoon electrical glitch.

Reigning British champion Brookes posted a 1m43.9s lap time early on in the session prior to a problem with shifting gears, alongside a host of WorldSBK regulars at the Spanish circuit.

“Everything before lunchtime was really positive,” Brookes told bikesportnews.com. “We got a lot of laps in early with no problems. We got a good general understanding of the bike, obviously I am a long way from knowing it, but the general feeling was good and it was starting to develop.

“We made a couple of changes which didn’t bring anything to the party but they meant we got a direction to go. After lunch we did one run and then came in to make some alterations as we had enough confidence to make big changes, but then we had a gearshift problem which meant the bike wouldn’t change gear and was cutting power in the wrong places. We tried a few things but that didn’t help, then we found the problem but we kind of ran out of time today.

“It was a bit of a unsatisfactory afternoon after the good morning but we have enough positives to make some progress tomorrow. We will alter the forks and shock settings, take a look at the weight balance and also have a look at the throttle connection as I would like a more immediate response as soon as I open it and then let the maps do their work as the revs build, but we have time tomorrow to look at all this.”

Brookes’ first outing on board the BMW with his title-winning BSB squad comes one month out from Phillip Island’s 2016 WorldSBK season opener on 26-28 February.