Endurance: Brookes out to prove a point with Suzuki

One man going into this year’s Suzuka 8 Hour with more pressure than usual the flag flyer for Suzuki and reigning MCE British Superbike champion Josh Brookes. Lining up alongside WSBK legend Nori Haga and the firm’s MotoGP test rider Takuya Tsuda at the Yoshimura squad, Brookes is out with a point to prove.

Once again going into the race with the squad that he took podium honours with back in 2013, Brookes admitted to MCN that after a difficult start to the year with his Milwaukee BMW team in WSBK, he needs a strong result to advertise himself for 2017.

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“It’s becoming more urgent to do to open up the opportunities for next year. I didn’t do a deal with Yoshimura with that in mind; I expected to do a good job this year with SMR, to showcase my abilities and secure a result for next year.

“That may now be something I can do at Suzuka, to open up those opportunities. Racing is a business; it’s cruel. I can’t secure a ride for next year on what I’ve done this year, so I’m hoping what I do there is good enough to reconfirm my value for money.”

But that result could well be on the cards, with the boss of the heavily factory-supported team, Yohei Kato, confirming after testing that he’s expecting a good year for the red and black bikes.

“After testing, I can say it went well, but we still have more things to do before the race week. We knew we had to spend time with Nori to know our bike this time. It went well and he made progress from his previous experiences here. He is a great rider and we got a lot of feedback, and now we have to prepare for him to go 100%!

“I can say Takuya improved a lot and he is stronger mentally, and I am confident he will do a good job. Also, I am expecting Josh will do a good job for us, and it is going to be a strong team this year.”

 

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