2015 British Superbike Champion Josh Brookes is calling on race fans to help him compete as a Wildcard at the Phillip Island round of the World Superbike Championship, February 24-26.
Brookes said “building a race team from scratch – sourcing all the parts, preparing the bike and with Australia being the furthest and most difficult place to import the bike to, freight has been a major factor that has over-shot the budget.
“I have invested as much as I can into this and I’m super lucky to have some sponsorship from amazing companies such as Elite Roads, Milspec Services, Cleaningshop.com.au, AluminiumOnline and Mr Leaf Screener, Mudbuster, but at this point we have already spent our budget of $100,000 and still have a shortfall of $30,000 to raise before the event.”
Brookes will be riding the riding the Yamaha YZF-R1 which took him to championship victory in 2015 and feels like he has a point to prove.
“I’m a motorbike rider and I want to win…
“But realistically a top five would be a great result at Phillip Island next week.”
“Last year I got a top-10 with a bike I was not happy on, so using that as a baseline, a gauge, I can surely go better on a bike I am super comfortable with and one which has taken me to a championship win.”
Testing on the R1 has been limited at this stage with the bike arriving two weeks ago.
Brookes has completed two private tests in Sydney although one day was wasted in 43-degree heat.
As the only Australian on the Yamaha-Finance Superbike grid, Brookes is no stranger to the field – making the move to the world’s leading production class aboard a BMW, but the foray proved frustrating, with Brookes’ team essentially abandoning the project after one year to develop a Factory Aprilia bike in 2017.
Brookes’ GoFundMe campaign has raised almost $10,000 so far.
“With 65,000 people following me on twitter I’m hoping if just half of those could give $1 to this project we can cover the overflow of expenses,” Brookes said.
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