Only a week after the race at Schleizer Dreick, Team Yamaha MGM is back on track for the seventh round of the Superbike*IDM International German Championship. This week's head-to-head is staged TT Circuit Assen and promises hot action as Milwaukee Yamaha's Josh Brookes is set to take his first ride on the IDM version of the YZF-R1M.

The Australian arrives in the Netherlands fresh from a second consecutive double victory at the seventh round of MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship in Thruxton that earned him the lead in the championship standings. He plans on making a smooth transition to the German class by following his rider instinct and welcomes the extra track time at TT Circuit Assen with open arms as the BSB paddock is yet to hit the 4.555km Dutch track in the third week of September.

Brookes is more than happy to fill in for fellow Yamaha riders Max Neukirchner and Damian Cudlin and feels motivated to follow in the footsteps of Cameron Beaubier and Kev Coghlan, who gave strong performances during their IDM debut at the previous round. Both riders showed huge potential in the first race, but the team was left with a bittersweet aftertaste after Beaubier claimed fourth place in the second race, while Coghlan suffered an unfortunate crash on the second lap.

The 27 year old Scotsman was immediately taken to Universitätsklinikum Jena, where he was diagnosed with seven broken thoracic vertebra and received posterior surgery on the eleventh and twelfth vertebra the next day, to protect the eleventh vertebra from further damage by having a screw-rod-construct (internal fixateur) inserted. On Tuesday Coghlan had a second, anterior operation to further stabilize the eleventh and twelfth vertebra. Both surgeries were carried out without further complications. Coghlan is expected to be discharged from the hospital in 8-10 days and make full a recovery after a rehabilitation process of approximately 4-6 months. He will be able to have the internal fixateur removed by a small surgical procedure in about 8-10 months time. Yamaha wishes Coghlan a speedy recovery and hopes to welcome him back soon.


Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. habil. Albrecht Waschke - Managing Senior Physician at Jena University Hospital’s Clinic for Neurosurgery

"After his heavy fall Kev suffered from multiple spine fractures with an incomplete burst fracture of Th11 being the worst injury. This unstable fracture had caused a kyphoticdeformity of the thoracolumbar junction and was circumferentially stabilized by an internal fixateur (screw-rod-construct) from Th11-L1 and a cage into the ruptured disc space of Th11/12 after open fracture reduction. Further fractures were detected at the following levels: Th4, Th5, Th6, Th7, Th8, Th9. All these fractures are biomechanically stable and do not require surgical treatment. After his second surgery yesterday, Kev is doing quite well. He suffers from pain while breathing, because there is a chest tube in his right thorax. He will be supervised on our intermediate care station probably until tomorrow. The postoperative radiographs are satisfactory regarding fracture reduction and implant position. Probably, Kev will be in our inpatient treatment for the next 8-10 days. The recovery from the injury will take a few (2-4) weeks, the fracture healing will be completed by 4-6 months. After 8-10 months the fixateur interne can be removed by a small surgical procedure."

Josh Brookes

"I have no idea what to expect. It was a surprise to be invited to the Superbike*IDM. I am so focused on my season in BSB that I don't even know really what's happening in the IDM championships. I don't know what the spec of the bike is, so I don't have expectations of what it should be. I will just feel my way into the team and the bike when I arrive. I am part of the Yamaha family so when I was asked to help fill in for the injured riders I wanted to help. It will be nice to have practice at Assen before BSB goes there."

Michael Galinski – Team Yamaha MGM Team Manager

"We will start in Assen with Joshua Brookes as a solo rider. We are really happy to have him in our team. At the moment he is incredibly strong in BSB and will be able to use the experience in Assen for his BSB round at the same track later in the year. We look forward to working with such a talented and fast rider and hope to be able to show again what a great bike the Yamaha YZF-R1M is."