Image: Supplied.

A challenging 2022 British Superbike Championship campaign for Josh Brookes sees the MCE Ducati rider out of contention for the decisive Showdown.

In short, the BSB series consists of two parts, starting with a ‘regular’ season where the top eight riders in the championship following the eighth round qualify for the Showdown.

The significance of that is the competitors who qualify are awarded a starting total of 1000 points ahead of the final three rounds, in addition to podium points for top three finishes throughout the regular season. If a rider misses the Showdown cut-off they have no chance of being awarded a top eight position in the series.

For Brookes, an enduring round at Cadwell Park put him at a deficit where he is mathematically unable to reach the top eight in the standings by the completion of Snetterton – the end of the regular season.

The Australian ultimately finished the seventh round of the series at Cadwell Park with 10-DNF-11 finishes, notably escaping major injury from a sizeable crash at ‘the  mountain’ in race two.

“Again it’s difficult to put a positive spin on things,” Brookes said. “We continued to make changes to the bike in the hope of improving it but today, that compromised us getting it off the line. And whilst the set-up was better for the races, I was hampered by getting bad starts.

“I got stuck in a battle with Tom both times and tried to pass him but crashed on the Mountain and in the final race, it took a long time to pass him, by which time I’d no chance of catching the riders in front. It’s been a painful weekend in more ways than one but that’s the situation, unfortunately.”

This is the first time in Brookes’ BSB career that he has not qualified for the Showdown. Teammate and former Superbike World champion Tom Sykes will also not make the top eight cut-off.