Image: Russell Colvin.

British Superbike Champion Josh Brookes’ return to World Superbikes at home didn’t start with a bang, but the experienced Australian did take home a bag of points with two top 10 finishes at Phillip Island.

The 32-year-old Milwaukee BMW racer gradually improved his feeling with the S 1000 RR throughout the race weekend, resulting in 10th in Saturday’s opening race and an improved ninth on Sunday.

“It’s good to get more points today at home and I’m pleased that I could push for longer and more consistently,” Brookes reflected yesterday afternoon. “We made a lot of changes to the bike overnight, they weren’t big changes, but they definitely improved the bike.

“I managed to find 10 seconds over the race distance from yesterday, which is a great job by the team and they recognised some of the areas I was struggling with. It’s always a risk to make bike changes between races and it’s just as easy to make a positive change as a negative change, but real credit to the Milwaukee BMW team for giving me that bit more confidence to push.

“There’s still some things I want to try with the throttle and the electronics, but we’ve got a good base to build on now to improve things like grip and power. There’s a bit of work to do before we get to Thailand, but I think we’re in a position now to bring all our data together and close the gap to the leaders.”

Milwaukee BMW team principal Shaun Muir was also positive following the BSB title-winning team’s high profile transfer from national competition to the world championship – switching from Yamaha to BMW in the process.

“Considering where we started on Monday and where we are today, there’s a happy atmosphere in both sides of the garage,” Muir said. “We’ve made a considerable number of changes and made giant steps forward as a result.

“Overall we got two solid finishes, with both riders in the points. The most important development is our race pace, where Josh took around eight seconds off his race distance and Karel 10, which shows what a big step forward we’ve taken. We can leave here with our heads held high, and now focus on starting afresh in Thailand in two weeks time.”