Source: Supplied.

Milwaukee BMW’s reigning British Superbike Champion Josh Brookes continues to iron out kinks in early development of the S 1000 RR as he makes his official World Superbike return this weekend.

In his home round to open the season at Phillip Island, 32-year-old Brookes was a lowly 18th on Friday, but is remaining patient in a bid to refine the base setting and move up the order.

“Today has been quite frustrating, because we’re doing the same lap time as I did on Monday in testing, but we’ve got some big changes to make so that the bike feels more natural to me,” Brookes explained.

“Every time I go out we’re gathering more ideas and data on understanding the bike. At the moment that’s all we can do and we need to use that to make some forward progress. It’s easy to get down and annoyed about this situation, but that’s just how bikes are sometimes and they don’t always react how you want them to.

“Everyone in the garage is really smart and there’s a lot of experience, so we just need to rely on what we know and we can start making some positive steps in a logical direction.”

The 2016 season marks Brookes’ first full season of WorldSBK, previously campaigning a mixture of rounds in 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2012. He was third in World Supersport during 2008.