JOSH BROOKES will remain with TAS Suzuki for the 2012 British Superbike championship, in a new-look team sponsored by Tyco.
Last season Brookes finished in the top five in his first year on board a Suzuki GSX-R1000, finishing as one of the Title Fighters in the Showdown.
His 2011 campaign started slow but the Australian, who finished runner-up in 2010 on the HM Plant Honda, took his first podium of the season with a second at Oulton Park and followed that with a win in the next round at Brands Hatch GP.
Brookes' goal for 2012 is the BSB title, he said: “I thought I was heading home for the Australian summer for four months but I’m delighted to be back in the UK for a few days to re-sign for TAS Racing. I love the new look of the bike in Tyco Suzuki colours and there’s no better place to get the whole season going again than the NEC bike show.
It took us a while to get things to click this season, but when it did we proved how good a package we are together, so I’m looking forward to taking that to the next level in 2012. I really enjoy working with the boys at TAS and I love the Northern Ireland lifestyle – so at least there will be no surprises when I return to start the season.
The goal as always is to win the championship and I really believe we can hit the ground running and do the business from round one in April. I’m looking forward to it.”
Team Manager Philip Neill added: “Our aim this year with a two rider team in BSB is to target the championship, and we believe re-signing Josh as our headline rider is a good start in making that a realistic target. He showed us glimpses of brilliance this year with his race wins and some superb lap times.
It’s fair to say it probably took us a bit longer than we anticipated to get to know each other, and for Josh to gel with the TAS Racing GSX-R1000 Superbike – so a second year together was always going to be beneficial. It’s good to get the deal finalised and great to have Josh back onboard. Now we need to concentrate on getting him a team-mate to complete the line-up.”
The 2012 BSB championship starts at Brands Hatch on the Easter Bank Holiday weekend in April. Click here for the 2012 British Superbike calendar.
