Josh Brookes claimed his first-ever Senior TT podium in a shortened four-lap race aboard the Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW M 1000 RR, which wrapped up a successful Isle of Man TT campaign for Faye Ho’s squad who celebrated a Superbike win, as well as a second place in the Superstock race with Peter Hickman.
The blue riband Milwaukee Senior TT got underway at 6pm on Saturday 8 June with perfect conditions around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course and at Glen Helen it was Peter leading with Josh fifth. Peter was flying aboard his BMW M 1000 RR Superbike machine and by Ramsey he’d stretched out his lead further, clocking the quickest-ever sector time from Ballaugh, while teammate Josh was in a battle for fourth.
An opening lap of 135.23mph from a standing start provided Pete with a 2.7 second lead over Davey Todd, while Josh was up into third with a personal best of 133.388mph and recorded an impressive 206.996mph through the Sulby Speed Trap. Hicky’s pace was incredible and setting another record sector time at the start of the second lap from the Grandstand to Glen Helen, he extended his lead over Todd by 4.8 seconds, and the history books were set to be rewritten.
However, it wasn’t meant to be as Peter didn’t reach Ramsey. Minutes seemed like hours until there was an update, and then the news came in that Hicky had crashed at Ginger Hall, but thankfully he was up and walking away.
With Peter out, Todd took the lead ahead of Josh, and the FHO Racing rider certainly wasn’t hanging about, clocking a new personal best lap of 134.056mph, to become only the fifth rider to break into the 134s. Over the remainder of the race Josh edged out the gap between him and Harrison, bringing his BMW machine home in second place to claim his best TT result in second, 26 seconds ahead of Harrison in third.
That’s a wrap on this year’s TT and we finished second in the Senior; I always knew that bike and category was going to be my best chance at a good result. I wasn’t expecting Hicky to crash out and Michael to have a problem, but I put my best efforts forward and ended up in second at the end. After all the misfortune and disappointment I’ve had over this TT I’m really pleased with the second; it’s like a win to me!
I’ve done by far my best lap time, improved by a long way and now have the trophy and the celebrations to prove it!”
Josh Brookes
#7
“We improved the BMW throughout the week following the Superbike race, even though we only had one more chance to ride it with how the weather played out, but the team did a great job getting it right for the Senior, where I was super-fast. We had the fastest-ever standing start, which was mega – the BMW felt awesome! I’m just really annoyed and disappointed that I made a very small mistake with such huge consequences at Ginger Hall on lap two, where I just relaxed a little too much and didn’t push the front hard enough into the corner, which meant that I unfortunately went down. At the time we had an eight-second lead; I’m super disappointed not only in myself but also for the whole team, all the boys and girls worked really hard, and I should have delivered them a Senior win and I didn’t which was my mistake that time. I’m super disappointed in that, but we’ll come back again next year and try again, we’ve proved how fast we are with that standing start when we can get the bike working right!”
Peter Hickman
#10
