This weekend the Bennetts British Superbike Championship reaches the ninth round of the season at Oulton Park, where the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team will be looking for a strong showing as the Showdown gets underway.
Returning for a second time this season, Faye Ho’s squad has good memories of the Cheshire track after Josh Brookes claimed pole position and won the Sprint race at the second round of the championship earlier in the year.
With just three rounds now remaining of the 2023 BSB season, this weekend the all-important Showdown gets underway. A change to previous years, the new-look Showdown has an updated points format and is not limited to the top eight riders, meaning this year 16 riders go into round nine with a mathematical chance of the title.
Points are crucial for the next two rounds at Oulton Park and Donington Park, with the amount of points up for grabs higher with 25 for a win, 22 for second and 20 for third place. The values are increased again for the finale at Brands Hatch in October.
With it all to play for this weekend, Josh is currently seventh in the overall standings, 101 points shy of the current standings leader, and alongside teammate Pete Hickman, the FHO Racing duo will be looking for a change of fortunes aboard the BMW M 1000 RR Superbikes, after a string of recent mixed results.
The weekend also marks the return of the HEL Performance British Junior Supersport class, where three of the FHO Girls – Denise dal Zotto, Holly Harris and Jamie Hanks-Elliott – will be back in action after a small break in the series.
BSB action gets underway today with the first free practice at 12.45. Qualifying and the opening race of the weekend takes place tomorrow (Saturday 16 September), with Race 2 and Race 3 on Sunday (17 September). Click here for the full weekend timetable.
Josh Brookes:
“My championship has suffered so much damage in recent rounds I’m not really looking at the championship as a whole, or my position in it, I’m only interested really in what results I can achieve. I’ve got to take it round by round and just focus on doing the best job I can in the moment and trying to better every opportunity. Oulton Park was a strong round for us earlier in the year, with the pole position and race win, so I hope with that in mind we can again have a strong weekend and be back in the mix. I’ve got to arrive at the round with the best preparation I can and hope that things are favourable.”
Peter Hickman:
“I’m looking forward to getting started at Oulton Park, last time we were here I was fast and finished fourth in one of the races and had a front row start, so overall it was a really strong round for us earlier in the year. We’ve had a tough few rounds recently, so I’m really hoping this weekend we can be strong and deliver what we all know FHO Racing is capable of for myself and Josh. The team has been working super hard again behind the scenes as always, so we just have to wait and see what the weekend brings, and hopefully it’s a good one for FHO!”
Faye Ho – Team Principal:
“We’re heading into the weekend after quite a bit of bad luck and tough rounds recently. It’s really hard for everyone as we all know what we can do as a team, we know what both Josh and Pete are capable of, but for some reason at the moment luck just doesn’t seem to be on our side. However, we arrive at Oulton having raced there already this season and having claimed a race win there, so hopefully this is a good sign for the weekend and we can make progress where we left off.”
