The Milwaukee Yamaha team had a positive start to the fourth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Snetterton with both Josh Brookes and Broc Parkes holding positions in the top five after the opening two free practice sessions.

Brookes had lapped the Norfolk circuit in record-breaking pace at the recent official test and in the opening sessions he was again posting times within his existing lap record to be holding second on the timesheets, 0.134s adrift of the fastest time. Brookes was confident that the times will continue to tumble on the second day on circuit as the track’s grip levels continue to rise.

Parkes had a positive start to his weekend too; the Australian pushing inside the top five on the second of the Milwaukee Yamahas and 0.6s adrift of the fastest lap of the day, something that he was content with on the opening day knowing the team have more to come tomorrow for qualifying.

Josh Brookes

"The tricky thing is that the grip is level is down today compared to the test we had here so we have been riding around and trying to understand things. If we put the grip level back to where it was at the test, we would able to replicate what we did then. When he had more grip it kind of disguised any set-up problems but they have been highlighted today with the lower grip. We have not made any changes, rather gathering information from me and from the data.

“We did a long run in the second session and the lap times were consistent and the bike was fairly kind to the tyres. We have been kind of steady as the bike is in a good range so it is hard to move away from that. We have the idea to change the engine braking and to change the fork settings as the grip levels have uncovered some problems. The front wants to slide while basically the rear has more grip than the front. We need to work on that and hopefully we can get it equal then the bike will be better."  

Broc Parkes

“We have changed something a bit with the front fork that Josh tested that I didn’t get a chance to and basically went in a direction with the setting that we didn’t have time to at the test. That is something we had up our sleeve and fortunately it worked. I felt comfortable on the bike although it took me a bit of time to get back in the groove this morning after riding other bikes since the test, but I think in general that was good.

“I am feeling more comfortable with the laps we have done today and my pace is pretty good. To be six tenths from the top is close enough for now and I think on used tyres we have good pace and I could make passes. In the braking where I have struggled a bit this year I was confident and that is important and I feel much better.”