Brookes celebrates Brands Hatch double with moustache shave

Josh Brookes has blasted back into the Bennetts British Superbike championship title picture with a dominant double victory at Brands Hatch – and celebrates by shaving his moustache.

The McAMS Yamaha rider has secured his first double race victory since 2015, when he claimed the BSB title, with a flawless performance at the Kent track to kick-start his campaign. Brookes’s double sees him jump up to fourth place in the BSB riders’ championship having seen off the threat from Glenn Irwin on the Be Wiser Ducati in both races.

Having capped a historic round for Yamaha, as the Japanese manufacturer celebrated 20 years since the launch of the YZF-R1, Brookes feels the double win is the perfect gift for the team following a tricky Knockhill round and says he’ll stick to his promise of shaving his moustache after doing the double.

“I’m a man of my word and said if I did the double I would take my moustache off so that’ll come off before the next round – probably tonight if Aimie [Brookes’s fiancée]  had her way,” Brookes said. “Thanks to everyone for a perfect weekend with Yamaha celebrating 20 years of the R1 and we did the double in our anniversary livery. What a fantastic gift to give Yamaha just weeks after their birthday.

“I looked back at race one and listened to what Glenn said in the post-race interview and I thought I needed to up my game as I knew he would come back stronger. I knew where I could improve so focused on that and being really consistent.

“The pressure was certainly on me at the end but I knew if I didn’t make any mistakes he wouldn’t be able to get past.”

So this is the situations, I want to keep the tash till classic TT but I also want to say if I do the double this weekend it’s coming off

— Josh Brookes (@JoshBrookes) July 20, 2018

Brookes has pushed his BSB Podium Points tally to 11 points while regaining a provisional place in the Showdown top six spots.