FABULOUS FOURTH FOR BROOKES AND DAO RACING IN SUPERBIKE TT

DAO Racing’s Josh Brookes took a fantastic fourth place in Sunday’s RST Superbike TT, notching up a 133.819-mph lap on the final lap of the opening 226.38-mile six lap race of the week to secure a top-five finish in the teams return to TT racing.

Following the postponement of Saturday’s RL360 Superstock TT, the RST Superbike race would be the opening battle of TT 2026.

Starting seventh on the road, Brookes made one his traditional fast starts, sitting fourth at end of the opening lap, where he would circulate the 37.73-mile Mountain Course in 17:07.713, producing a 132.2mph lap from a standing start.

Lap two, the ‘BadBoy’ continued to push hard, holding a manageable gap over Honda Racing’s John McGuinness MBE, and he looked to chase down the battle for the podium, where he had a gap of 20 seconds to overcome. After a solid set of six sectors, Brookes pitted for the first of two pit-stops, still holding fourth place, and posting his second 132mph lap in the process.

After a 54 second pit-stop, which included a full tank of fuel and a fresh rear tyre, Brookes headed down Bray Hill for the third time and continued to post solid sector times. The Bringelly-born man would then become embroiled in a battle with McGuinness, as the veteran began to chase down Josh in the standings.

Lap four got underway and he continued to push the limits around the Mountain Course, posting a personal best race sector time to Glen Helen. He would then maintain a seven second lead over McGuinnes as he headed into the pits for the final time.

Following another fantastic 54 second pit-stop, Brookes got his head down once again for the final two laps. Lap five saw ‘Brooksey’ continue to keep the hammer down, keeping McGuinness at bay, who had cut the gap to 1.5 seconds at Ramsey Hairpin. However, over the Mountain would gain time, extending that distance to his rival back to seven seconds.

However, on lap six, the final lap of the race, Brookes would improve in time once again, posting his personal best lap of the race, and his fastest lap of the week, a 16:55.015, at an average speed of 133.819mph to cross the line in fourth place.

Josh Brookes: “It’s a credit to the team, the superbike has been quiet a difficult machine over the practice week, and we had to make a lot of changes to make it competitive, I think even in that race it’s still visible to see that’s not easy to ride. It was quite a brutal start to race week, a six-lap superbike race, without any event to ease us into it.

“The team did a great job in the pit-stop, we didn’t lose any time, and everything went smooth. The early laps for me are where I need to work on a lot more in myself, the final lap of the race was my fastest and I feel like I take too much time building into it, I can’t just drop the hammer on the first few laps.

“I had a few moments with the bike before the first pit-stop and that made me a little nervous, then I tried to ride a little more smoother and just be flowing. After the last pit-stop I got my head down and pushed on a little more, and that’s when I made a few more improvements.

“Still, fourth place is good, it’s a solid start and we can move on now into the other races with confidence. I just want to add my thanks to the fans out there, they were fantastic, waving all around on the final lap, it didn’t go unnoticed and I really appreciate all the support.”

Team manager Jonny Bagnall: “We’re delighted with that, it’s a great result for the team and it goes to show how hard we’ve worked over practice week to get into this position. The team have worked incredibly hard to improve the superbike, improve Josh’s feel with the it and make him more comfortable to give him extra confidence.

“To finish fourth and achieve a 133.819mph lap on the final lap is a great result, it gives us a lot of data now as we head into the Senior TT on Saturday. I’m also extremely proud of the team, our two pit stops were faultless and that helped us to finish where we have.

“We have three more races to come across the week, and I feel we’re in a good place heading into those.”

The teams focus now shifts to the Wednesday, where the RL360 Superstock race two is set to take place from 13:30 over three laps.