It’s January and this Honda is already the best looking bike you’ll see in 2026
Josh Brookes rolled out an absolutely stunning Honda Fireblade for an off-season race in Australia.
Winter in the global north means summer in the global south, which makes Australia a decent – if toasty – spot for racing in Europe’s off-season.
In fact, racing in the northern hemisphere’s winter season makes so much sense in Australia that the Australian Superbike Championship will switch to a summer schedule from the second half of this year, shortening its 2026 season in order to accommodate the schedule change for the 2026–27 campaign.
At the moment, one of the most prominent Aussie summer racing series is the Summer Night Series run by the St George Motorcycle Club. All races are held at Sydney Motorsports Park, formerly Eastern Creek, and this year’s edition of the championship has attracted a few big names in the European scene.
Unsurprisingly, all of them are Australians returning home for the winter. Senna Agius rode a Ducati Panigale V4 R in the first round of the series in December, while Josh Brookes – who also raced the series in 2024–25 – competed on a DAO Racing-prepared Honda CBR1000RR-R SP.
Agius, who was the overall winner of the first round, did not turn up for the second, which took place on 9 January. However, in his place were two other Aussies European fans will be familiar with: Jacob Roulstone on a Fireblade, and Harrison Voight aboard a Panigale V4 R.
As far as results go, it wasn’t a great night for Brookes, who went 7-4-7 in the three races. But he definitely won the style contest – which we might have invented on our own – for his immaculate livery, as pictured, inspired by Mick Doohan's 1994 Honda NSR500.
It’s an absolute stunner and, as Brits, we can’t help but feel a little sad that we (most likely) won’t get to see it in person during the 2026 BSB season, which will be Brookes’ second on the DAO Honda team.
Kindly, Brookes has at least uploaded a YouTube video documenting his re-build of the bike after his Race 3 crash from the first round of the Summer Night Series, which also includes the process behind creating and applying that gorgeous paint job.
Although it wasn’t an excellent second round of the series for Brookes, newcomer to this year’s series Voight had a strong meeting, winning the first two races and finishing second in the third, which was won by Cru Halliday. Roulstone went 9-8-7 on the night.
