Australian Josh Brookes took a sensational British Superbike Championship race win at Cadwell Park on his race debut at the Lincolnshire circuit to give the HM Plant Honda team a winning double at their home track.

Brookes had earlier finished fifth in race one after experiencing troubles on the grid, that race won by teammate Ryuichi Kiyonari ahead of Michael Laverty and Michael Rutter.

Come race two there was drama for the second HM Plant Honda of Kiyonari before the start of the race as he was forced to retire on the warm up lap with a technical problem, which ruled him out of the chance to challenge for the double victory.

Laverty got the hole shot into Coppice for the first time with Rutter and Brookes in third and the HM Plant Honda rider was eager to repeat his teammate’s earlier victory.

Brookes continued with his no-holds-barred moves, moving to second on the opening lap to show his impressive style over the Mountain works, to give him the edge into Hall Bends to take second from Rutter. A lap later it was a repeat performance as the Australian pulled the same move on race leader Michael Laverty to take the lead.

Brookes then edged out the advantage lap by lap to end the race over four seconds ahead, whilst the battle for third was tough as Laverty, Rutter and Tommy Hill all vied for the final podium positions.

“That race is the kind of performance I wanted to show when I first came over here to race in BSB – to get into the lead and then edge out a gap and win in style,” Brookes commented. “It is such a great feeling and the team have worked so hard this weekend to get us in this position.

“The CBR1000 was fast and even here where some people say it is hard to pass we found the speed with the improvements we made over the weekend and it puts us up there in the championship now.”

Laverty was holding second but then on the 13th lap he got the back stepped out into the Chicane and was fortunate to save the Relentless Suzuki but he had to go across the grass and rejoin which closed his minimal lead over Rutter. Hill then joined the fray on the same lap with a determined move down the inside at Barn to move third. The championship leader then repeated the pass a lap later on Rutter to move second.

The race was then red flagged on the 16th lap when Motorpoint Yamaha’s Dan Linfoot crashed heavily at the top of the Mountain.

John Laverty continued his impressive performances on the Buildbase Kawasaki to finish fifth ahead of Tommy Bridewell who once again had some sensational clashes to move to sixth, first with Chris Walker and then challenging Laverty. ‘Stalker’ gave the MSS Colchester Kawasaki an eighth place finish ahead of Martin Jessopp and Stuart Easton on the Swan Honda.

In the Mirror.co.uk BSB – Evo class, Steve Brogan took a second win of the day for the Jentin Racing-BMW Motorrad team ahead of Alex Lowes and Hudson Kennaugh.

South Australian Billy McConnell shrugged aside a tumble in the race day morning warm-up session to lead throughout the fourth round of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Superbike Championship and take his first win of the season.

Riding CAME Yamaha the Aussie had his teammate, series leading James Westmoreland trailing him throughout while adrift of them Sam Lowes was scrapping for position in the early stages with Graeme Gowland and Ian Hutchinson.

Lowes was running third on the fifth lap and closing down Westmoreland, setting up a terrific last lap scrap.

Westmoreland held him off though by only 0.126secs as McConnell took the victory by over five seconds.Gowland took fourth from Ian Hutchinson, Jack Kennedy and Glen Richards.

“I am chocked up to win this race as it feels like a long time coming and it is down to the hard work from the CAME Yamaha team,” McConnell said. “I have had some bad luck but we have turned it around here that’s for sure. We have been up there all weekend and I am relieved to have won a race and to get my championship back on track.”

The injured Jason O’Halloran soldiered on to 10th for the round on his Triumph Daytona 675.

Westmoreland leads the title stakes 65-61 over Lowes with McConnell on 54 points.

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