Solid Points For Brookes And Sykes At Oulton
The MCE Ducati team were in action at Oulton Park today for round nine of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship with Josh Brookes and Tom Sykes taking tenth and 11th place respectively in the 14-lap eBay Sprint race for Paul Bird’s Cumbrian-based team.
Lap times from yesterday meant Australian Brookes had to go in the opening Q1 qualifying session but he comfortably topped that with a lap of 1.34.291 to progress into Q2 and although he went quicker on the factory-backed MCE Insurance Ducati Panigale V4R with a lap of 1.34.175, which was his quickest of the weekend, it was only good enough for 13th overall and the fifth row of the grid.
However, his lap time was only four tenths of a second adrift of a front row start whilst Yorkshireman Sykes was only three tenths of a second slower. That put him three places and one row further back with the former World Superbike Champion having to settle for 16th after losing some time in the pits at the beginning of the session whilst changes were made to the MCE Insurance Ducati.
In the race which got underway under threatening skies, both riders made steady starts, Josh in 14th and Tom in 15th but there was little change for the first half of the 14 laps and it wasn’t until lap 11 that both riders were able to gain a position. However, there was plenty of drama in the closing laps, which included Jason O’Halloran and Tarran Mackenzie crashing out, and the net result was that Josh took the chequered flag in 11th place with Tom one further place back in 12th.
However, Peter Hickman, who’d crossed the line in fourth, was excluded for his part in O’Halloran’s crash and that promoted Josh and Tom up to tenth and 11th respectively to add to their points tallies.
Josh Brookes: “Qualifying went well but the lap times we were doing were wearing out the tyre after six laps, so we softened the suspension and power for the race in order to extend the tyre life in the 14-lap race. The consequence was that we lost quite a bit of pace and it might have been better to leave the set-up as it was, lap at a strong pace in the first six laps and then hang on as best we could in the second half. The conservative option we took didn’t work out but we’re trying to adapt all the time and maybe focusing on our speed is the way forward tomorrow. They’re longer races so we're going to have a good think overnight about what our best strategy should be.”
Tom Sykes: “I was pleasantly happy with the way things were going in free practice with some good lap times and I was hoping to climb higher up the order with a new tyre in qualifying. Unfortunately, fitting a new tyre didn’t seem to agree with the bike and I wasn’t able to push on like I wanted. That meant the starting position wasn’t that good and although I got a good launch, I found myself blocked in and unable to move forward. It’s obviously disappointing and frustrating to come 12th.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-ordinator: “Both riders in the points is a positive result but we aren’t happy to be on the fringes of the top ten, we know we should be fighting much higher up the order. But it’s proving difficult right now so as we always do at PBM, we’ll work on how we can make things better and hopefully we can give both riders what they need after we’ve studied the data. The two races tomorrow should suit us better so hopefully we can make the changes which we need so we can challenge further up the field.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship eBay Sprint race (14 laps)
1 Bradley Ray (Yamaha)
2 Tommy Bridewell (Ducati)
3 Leon Haslam (Kawasaki)
4 Glenn Irwin (Honda)
5 Danny Buchan (BMW)
6 Lee Jackson (Kawasaki)
10 Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati)
11 Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati)
Championship Standings
1 Ray 1086pts
2 O’Halloran 1048
3 Mackenzie 1031
4 Irwin 1029
5 Bridewell 1028
6 Jackson 1024
13 Brookes 117
15 Sykes 101
Pictures courtesy of Double Red: Josh Brookes (25) and Tom Sykes (66).
