DAO RACING ROUND OUT POSITIVE PRACTICE WEEK AT ISLE OF MAN TT

Josh Brookes and the DAO Racing Honda squad enjoyed a fruitful practice week at the 2026 Isle of Man TT races, with Brookes and the team working on developing the Fireblade package throughout five sessions on track, culminating in the Australian finishing third in the overall standings in both the superbike and superstock classes.

The opening action got underway on Monday May 25 under sun-kissed skies, with an untimed practice session the first order of the day. Brookes began with two laps onboard his superbike, successfully completing 75.46-miles. Due to an incident at Parliament Square, the session would be red flagged and subsequently cancelled, meaning he would be unable to complete any laps on his superstock machine.

Tuesday’s evening practice session would see ‘Brooksey’ take to the track on his superstock machine for two laps, a 130.197mph lap from a standing start, which would see him top the time sheets by 6.2 seconds.

A double session then took place on Wednesday, once again under sun kissed skies over the 37.73-mile Mountain Course. Josh would complete one lap on his superbike, before switching across to his superstock machine. However, half round his first lap the session would be red flagged due to an oncourse medical emergency, which would force the organisers to cancel the session.

Just two hours later the roads would close again for the second evening practice session of the week, with Josh starting off on his superstock bike, planning to complete two laps before jumping on his superbike for one final circulation.

Following the customary tap on the shoulder, the ‘BadBoy’ hit Bray Hill at full speed, and from a standing start he notched up a 131.943mph lap, circulating the course in 17:09.444, and setting his personal best lap in the superstock category which would leave him at the top of the timesheets.

After a slightly slower second lap due to an incident on the course which Brookes safely rode slower through, he returned to the pits to swap to his superbike, on which he would complete one lap on, crossing the line with a 126.128mph lap, leaving him fifth in the standings.

Friday’s final double practice session would be once again run under sunny skies, albeit blustery conditions around the Mountain Course faced the team and Brookes. However, despite the challenging winds, after working hard to improve the superbike package, Josh would increase his speed and end the day on with a 17:07.288 lap, at an average speed of 132.2mph.

After finding more than 30 seconds in time with the superbike, and feeling comfortable from the off with his superstock machine, Brookes would round out the week third in the overall standings in both classes.

DAO Racing would like to send their well wishes, thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of Dan Ingham who sadly passed away following an incident at Doran’s bend in Wednesday evenings practice, we also extend those feelings to the competitors who have suffered injuries following separate incidents across the week.

Josh Brookes: “I’m relatively pleased with our performance this week, superstock, surprisingly, has been quite a manageable bike. It’s been consistent, it’s been relatively well behaved, which is almost the opposite of years gone by. Normally I would be disappointed with the superstock performance, and then be really happy with my superbike because it was stuff that I could relate to from BSB. 

“But for what reason, the superbike has been really painful to work with. It’s been nervous, unstable and reactive off bumps and really quite difficult to ride. Even just before the final practice I said to the mechanics ‘have we got to the point where we just ride the superstock bike in both the superstock and the superbike races’, but as it turns out the last run on the superbike wasn’t particularly bad, the bike was much improved on what it had been in earlier practices. 

“I’m a lot more in control of it, it’s not perfect by any stretch, but it’s something that I can go and race on now. We’re looking to make progress in a certain direction, it’s never guaranteed, but I’ve got a lot more confidence that we’re going in the right direction. That’s the mindset we have at the moment, we’ll just keep chipping away with changes now, run the superbike in the superbike class and see if we can extract the superbike performance that we need to be a bit competitive in that race. 

“For tomorrow you can never guarantee anything, you don’t know who’s sandbagging, and who’s just been doing what. Our times have been fairly strong amongst others so I don’t feel like I’m doing anything extraordinary or that’s particularly outstanding, but we’ve been really strong amongst the group. I’m never one to sort of jump to conclusions before it happens, I’d rather say less and just do my best and get what’s deserved.”

Team manager Jonny Bagnall: “Practice week has been extremely positive for us in all honesty, even though we have battled a couple of issues with the superbike, so it’s nice to round out the week inside the top three of both classes. The Isle of Man TT always throws different challenges our way, however as a team we’ve worked hard to overcome them, and I’m pleased with the position we find ourselves in.

“The superbike has been the real challenge for us, but the team have worked around the clock to improve Josh’s feeling, and you can see the progress we have made from the times alone. The superstock bike is working in a really strong window, that bike is ready to race and we’re now ready to go battle it out for the podium across the four races.”

The teams focus now shifts to the opening race of the event, the RL360 Superstock TT, which is set to get underway at 10:45am on Saturday May 30.