DAO RACING TAKE POSITIVES FROM CHALLENGING WEEKEND AT BRANDS HATCH

DAO Racing endured a challenging weekend in the heart of the Kent countryside at round five of the 2026 ZYN British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch, with Lee Jackson and Josh Brookes fighting hard across the three days to bring home solid results, including top ten finishes for the pair.

The weekend got off to a challenging start for the team, battling set-up challenges in both free practice sessions, before both riders increased their speed during the short 20 minute pre-qualifying. Although Lee and Josh improved in time, they would fail to sit inside the top 12 at the flag, meaning they would be forced to fight it out in Q1 on Saturday.

Under sun kissed skies in Kent, Saturday’s session, to set the grid, would see Josh miss out on a spot in Q2 by just 0.017 to fellow Australian Jason O’Halloran, meaning he would line up for the first 20-lap battle in 16th. Lee would experience contrasting fortunes, and would progress into the second session after posting his best lap of the weekend. Q2 would see ‘Jacko’ once again improve in time, posting a 1:25.207, which would line him 12th on the grid and importantly the top Honda.

Later that afternoon the opening 20-lap race of the weekend got underway in perfect conditions, with both Lee and Josh making good starts away from the lights. After the opening lap the pair had made up several places, holding ninth and 13 respectively.

They would then continue their own personal fights during the remaining 18 laps, with ‘Jacko’ dicing with Rory Skinner, and Brookes holding off Ilya Mikhalchik. The pair fought hard for the remainder of the race, until with two laps the red flag came out for an incident involving Eugene McManus, meaning both Lee and Josh would be forced to settle for 10th and 13th.

Perfect conditions would once again bless the 2.6-mile Grand Prix circuit on Sunday, and by virtue of their lap times achieved in the first race, Lee would start from 12th on the grid with Brookes a row behind in 14th.

The pair experienced mixed fortunes off the start, with Brookes making up three places after the opening lap, holding 11th, with Jackson dropping two spots back to 14th and he quickly became embroiled in a race long battle with Ilya Mikhalchik.

Over the course of the next 11 laps, Brookes rode a hard race, pushing the limits of his Honda Fireblade, improving his weekend personal best lap in the process, posting a 1:25.093. By half race distance the 43-year-old had dropped back to 12th place, until the two laps, where he made his move on Joe Talbot, and then set his sights on Danny Kent who laid ahead. He stalked the Yamaha man until the final corner, and on the drag to the line he forced his way passed, taking 10th at the flag.

‘LeeBob’ continued to battle with Mikhalchik all race long, with the pair swapping and exchanging places across the course of the race, with Lee also improving on his personal best lap time of the weekend in the process.

However, with just two laps remaining of the race, Jackson made his move stick for 13th, and pulled a manageable gap over the Ukrainian, taking the flag to collect two all-important Championship points.

The third, and final 20-lap race of the weekend, would see Josh start from 11th on the grid, with Lee 13th, courtesy of their lap times achieved in the earlier encounter.

Off the start the pair made solid starts, with Brookes sat in 11th and Jackson 12th after the opening sequence of corners, however, at the end of the first lap Josh was forced to retire from the race due to a technical fault.

Lee would quickly find himself in a battle for the top ten with Joe Talbot, and he started to close down the gap to the rider ahead until a safety car was deployed on lap six. After the race got back underway two laps later, Lee got his head down once again.

With five laps to go, Jackson continued to hold 11th place after Danny Kent joined the party, making it a three-man dice for ninth after Christian Iddon retired ahead of them. As the laps ticked down, ‘LeeBob’ struggled to find a way past Talbot, and after some hard, but fair moves, from a charging Jason O’Halloran, Lee bit back in a gritty manner and took back 11th as he took the flag.

Josh Brookes: “The weekend has been a little bit of a work in progress. We can’t expect to be at the front, mixing it around the top five, and we’ve focussed more on the top ten. Throughout practice and qualifying we were in that mix, making changes to the bike and trying to find something that works at this circuit.

“Everyone is setting new standards in terms of lap times this year, so we have to follow the trend and try to do the same. The opening race was ok on Saturday, and we made some good progress, and after trying something new in morning warm up we reverted back to that setting, with some fine tuning to the electronics for the sprint race and it seemed to make a good improvement to the bike. I was nearly half a second quicker than I went in the first race.

“So, I was hoping to capitalise on that in race three but unfortunately we had and electrical issue with the bike, and I was forced to retire. Ultimately, it’s frustrating because I was curious at what we could do in it. We’ll head to the next round now and continue to fight, give it our all and try to improve our Championship position.”

Lee Jackson: “It feels like we’ve gone round in circles a little bit this weekend, and it’s frustrating. We lost a lot of time on Friday in free practice due to an engine issue. We kept our heads down and worked as the weekend went on, and I did get closer to posting my fastest lap here.

“I was fairly happy with the result we had in Saturday’s race, I made a good start and made some good progress. I still wasn’t happy with the bike, you’re never going to have a perfect set-up, but recently I just haven’t been feeling comfortable at all.

“We tried some different for Sunday, and in the sprint race it didn’t work, I couldn’t make the best of the bike, and I struggled to go forwards. So, in race three I wanted to make amends and get stuck in, which I did. We made an improvement, but it was still tough for me. The pace is incredible at the moment in BSB, and it’s making us work harder to achieve our goals. Hopefully our luck will change at Oulton Park, and we’ll be a little closer to the front next time out.”

Team manager Jonny Bagnall: “Overall this weekend has been challenging, but in truth we have made steps with the bike for both Josh and Lee, however it’s frustrating to see those steps not fully translate into results.

“Fighting for top ten’s isn’t where we want to be, but honestly speaking it’s where we find ourselves right now. Credit to them team they haven’t stopped working all weekend to make improvements to the bike.

“We’ll look ahead to our home round now at Oulton Park, we already have good data having raced there earlier in the year and hopefully we can turn around season around next time out.”

Lee Jackson now sits 10^th in the Championship standings on 76 points, with Josh Brookes 13^th on 68. The team now look ahead to round six of the Championship at their home round of Oulton Park on July 31 to August 2.