Solid Points For Sykes And Brookes At Snetterton
After mixed conditions during practice and qualifying, the MCE Ducati pairing of Tom Sykes and Josh Brookes both scored solid points in the opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Snetterton this afternoon with Sykes equalling his best result of the season in seventh.
Having enjoyed a good test at the 2.99-mile circuit in pre-season, Paul Bird’s Penrith-based team had high hopes coming into the event, but the fine weather then was replaced by damp conditions earlier today with both riders suffering albeit in different ways during qualifying.
Former World Superbike champion Sykes soon went quickest in the wet session on the factory-backed MCE Insurance Ducati Panigale V4R only to have a nasty crash on his next lap, whilst Brookes struggled with the bike in the tricky conditions. As a result of his crash, Tom ended up eighth overall, for a third row start, with Brookes four places further back and at the end of the fourth row.
Fortunately, conditions had dried up by the time the 12-lap eBay Sprint race came under starters orders and Sykes made a good start to complete the opening lap in sixth place, with 2015 and 2020 BSB Champion Brookes in 14th.
The safety car was soon deployed due to an early incident with racing resuming on lap four and Tom had his hands full as he tried to keep Leon Haslam and Andrew Irwin behind him. Slipping back to eighth, a late crash for Irwin promoted Tom back up to seventh and this was where he finished to match the result he’d taken earlier in the season at Donington Park.
For Brookes, it proved to be a more challenging race and he dropped back to 15th at one point although the Australian ace regrouped in the second half of the race and took the chequered flag in 13th place for three hard-earned points.
Tom Sykes: “Physically, I wasn’t in the best position after the crash in qualifying, but I was a little bit disappointed with the race as I made a really good start to give myself good track position. In some areas, the bike felt really strong, trail braking being an example, but I wasn’t able to carry the corner speed in the way I wanted and I lost momentum coming out of the corners. That made it hard to move forward and stay ahead of the riders behind me, but I was able to bring the bike home for seventh and we’ll look to move forward a bit more tomorrow.”
Josh Brookes: “I’m obviously not happy with the result and it wasn’t helped by getting a poor start, something we’ve been quite good at lately. For some reason, changes we’ve made to the bike have affected the acceleration from a standing start although, initially, I felt quite comfortable with the position I was in. The pace was quite slow, so I felt confident of moving forward but as the laps unwound, no-one got any quicker. No one was really able to improve or make passes, so it almost felt like we were riding rather than racing. It was the first real run of fine weather, so it felt a bit like a learning race and, hopefully, we’ll be able to make some changes for tomorrow and get some better results.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-ordinator: “It’s been a difficult couple of days with the constantly changing weather and we’ve ended today disappointed with our results, given how well we tested here in pre-season. Josh wasn’t able to get confidence with the bike in the wet and as we’ve seen a number of times this year, if you qualify down in the pack, it’s very difficult to advance forward in the race; you have to be on the first two rows. Tom, on the other hand, was very confident in the wet although the crash obviously set him back a bit. All things considered, he did well to bring the bike home in seventh but, obviously, we’ll be looking for better results tomorrow.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship eBay Sprint race (12 laps)
1 Bradley Ray (Yamaha)
2 Tarran Mackenzie (Yamaha)
3 Kyle Ryde (Yamaha)
4 Christian Iddon (Suzuki)
5 Leon Haslam (Kawasaki)
6 Lee Jackson (Kawasaki)
7 Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati)
13 Josh Brookes (MCE Ducati)
Championship standings
1 Ray 397pts
2 O’Halloran 363
3 Skinner 241
4 Jackson 235
5 Irwin 221
6 Mackenzie 206
13 Brookes 102
15 Sykes 90
Pictures courtesy of Double Red: Josh Brookes (25) and Tom Sykes (66).
