Source: Supplied.

Australia’s Josh Brookes has taken a major amount of confidence from his Milwaukee BMW package after an inspired performance that saw him leading Assen’s second World Superbike race in mixed conditions on Sunday.

Showers late on Sunday morning at the TT Circuit Assen saw a wet race declared for the WorldSBK contest and in a frantic early part of race two it was Brookes who forged ahead, with the conditions suiting the current BSB champion.

However shortly after having made a pit stop to change to slicks, Brookes crashed out at turn nine after riding so well on wet tyres. Nonetheless, the 32-year-old was encouraged by his excellent performance in the first part of the race and took the positives from the visit to The Netherlands.

“We’ve been making progress all weekend,” Brookes commented. “When the rain first came down I was a little bit put off because we’d been in P5 in morning Warm Up in dry conditions, so when the rain started I was thinking this could be not so easy.

“As it was the changes we made to the bike during the weekend in the dry also made it better in the wet conditions, so I felt like I could go faster and I was thinking I need to move forward. I started making passes and it felt very easy. I was confident with the bike and the tyres and it felt natural to ride at that speed. To lead the World Superbike race was a great feeling and I was really pleased.”

“It was particularly satisfying because the first part of this year has been so tough for the team and for me. Changing to the World Superbike Championship, changing to BMW motorcycles and then incorporating the BMW staff and electronics and all the things that come with WSBK it has actually been quite a big challenge.”

After finishing race one in 11th position and despite crashing out of race two, Brookes is currently ranked 16th in the championship standings, four rounds into his WorldSBK return.