2015 British Superbike Champion Josh Brookes had his first introduction to the SA Kawasaki BC performance ZX10R machine yesterday at Wakefield Park Raceway. Brookes will campaign at next weekend’s Swann Insurance Australasian Superbike Championship grand finale at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The thirty-three-year-old completed around sixty laps at the 2.2km circuit located near Goulburn in New South Wales and the test was simply for Brookes to familiarise himself with the bike and make the odd settings here and there.
“We maximised the track time, riding every session and we tried a lot of changes,” Brookes said in a press release following the test.
Brookes admitted that he was familiar with the package that he will race with at Sydney Motorsport Park, however, the setup that he found yesterday won’t be as important as Wakefield Park is a completely different circuit compared to the fast layout that Sydney Motorsport Park is.
“It’s good to have tried a range of options. This will surely make it easier to find a direction at the race and I can now look forward to the next time I get to ride the SA Kawasaki BC performance Ninja ZX-10R. Thank you to the team and their sponsors for making the effort to get me out at Wakefield yesterday,” Brookes said.
Team Manager, Kelvin Reilly who was on hand to guide Brookes through his shakedown test yesterday told AMCN that in every session Brookes made a lot of progress.
“We made some changes to the bike to set it up for the way Josh likes to ride,” explained Reilly.
“I really look forward to working with Josh next weekend and can’t wait to see how he fairs against Robbie [Bugden] and the other top riders.”
Brookes will have a familiar face in the SA Kawasaki BC performance garage in Stewart Winton, who has been his crew chief for the past two years now.
Russell Colvin
