HM Plant Honda’s Josh Brookes made history today at Silverstone by becoming the first rider to win on the all-new Arena circuit after holding off the challenges of his rivals, following an immense five-way battle on the final lap in the opening British National Superstock 1000 Championship race.

The Australian was second on the opening lap before the battle for the lead developed as he was fighting hard to take the advantage as six riders diced for supremacy. Five riders had a spell in the lead before the last lap shootout which included South Australian Glen Richards, Howie Mainwaring, Jon Kirkham and Simon Andrews.

On the final lap, Brookes was lying second and was able to swap places with his Padgetts Honda’s Glen Richards and was able to just edge ahead to take the first victory of the weekend.

“I just got away and tried to get my head down – I got a good start and I forgot what these bikes feel like to race as they are so forgiving,” Brookes commented. “You can be so aggressive and you could see that from some of the moves out there – you wouldn’t have been able to hold some of those lines that we were doing on a Superbike!

“That was just so exciting all the way through, we were swapping places all round the track and you could be first one lap, then fifth the next so it was real fun. You can ride these Superstock bikes at full speed everywhere and this track is so wide you can make slight mistakes and it doesn’t cost you too much time.

“On the last lap there were a few moments and I think that was my fastest lap of the race so that shows how hard we were pushing, but also how good the Fireblade is aswell. It just feels great to know I won the first race here, now we just have to wait to see what happens tomorrow.”

The second National Superstock 1000 race will take place during Sunday’s race day at the British Grand Prix, the fifth round of the MotoGP World Championship.