Josh Brookes will make a wild-card appearance in the opening round of the 2017 World Superbike season on his British Superbike title-winning Yamaha.
The 2015 BSB champion made the step over to WorldSBK last season with Sean Muir Racing, though the British outfit lost their Yamaha support and ran BMW machinery instead. Unfortunately, a lack of factory backing from the German manufacturer saw the team struggle and Brookes ended the year a disappointing 14th in the standings.
Not content with how things panned out, Brookes has teamed up with ER Motorsports and has secured his 2015 YZF-R1 from former BSB team owner and champion Tommy Hill.
The Australian hopes that, by riding a bike he is familiar with, he will be able to demonstrate his capabilities a lot better than he was able to throughout the entirety of 2016.
“The idea is particularly interesting to me because I’m as intrigues as the rest of the world to know what I can do on a Yamaha in WorldSBK,” he said speaking to motorcyclenews.com.
“We know the engine will be below the factory spec, but it doesn’t matter because the point is to find out where the BSB bike would finish. This will be a true gauge of my riding level compared to the guys I will line up with, as I don not believe last year’s results were a true reflection of my speed.”
Brookes will make his BSB return this year with the Yamaha-backed Anvil TAG Hire squad, and will also contest several international road races including the Isle of Man TT with Norton.
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