Brookes grabs first win of 2015 as Byrne and Easton crash

Josh Brookes has claimed a dramatic maiden win in 2015 after British Superbike championship leader Shane Byrne and his PBM Kawasaki team-mate Stuart Easton both suffer huge crashes

19 Jul 2015

Click here to see full BSB race one results from Brands Hatch

Josh Brookes has claimed a dramatic maiden win in 2015 after British Superbike championship leader Shane Byrne and his PBM Kawasaki team-mate Stuart Easton both suffer huge crashes.

The Milwaukee Yamaha rider pinched the lead from Byrne midway through the race as the flash points unfolded behind him. Easton suffered a heavy smash at the high speed Hawthorns turn on lap four which sent him and his Kawasaki ZX-10R somersaulting into the safety barriers.

The safety car was brought out to allow race marshals to safely recover Easton who required a stretcher, while the pack were bunched back up.

Brookes held on to the lead with Byrne in hot pursuit as racing restarted, with the four-time BSB champion setting the fastest lap of the race.

However, on lap 11 he suffered a similar crash to his PBM Kawasaki team-mate on the same corner, causing the second safety car period of race one.

Byrne was also stretched off the track but after initial checks he was sitting up and made his way back to the PBM Kawasaki garage.

Byrne's off promoted Anvil Hire TAG Kawasaki rider Richard Cooper into second and he showed he was more than capable to run with the front men as he maintained an impressive second place from JG Speedfit Kawasaki's James Ellison.

Tyco BMW's Tommy Bridewell also benefited from Byrne and Easton falling by making strong progress up the field into fourth place ahead of his team-mate Michael Laverty.

Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati stand in rider John Hopkins narrowly missed out on his top five objective by taking sixth place ahead of Quattro Plant Kawasaki's Luke Mossey and Honda Racing's Dan Linfoot.

Due to the fallers up in front a host of riders were shift up the order with James Westmoreland of JG Speedfit Kawasaki grabbing ninth as Billy McConnell completed the top ten.

Pole sitter Byrne managed to hold the holeshot off the line to steer clear off the bunching midfield, which came to a head at Druids as Jason O'Halloran slipped off and took out Peter Hickman and Danny Buchan in the process.

Experienced rider Michael Rutter suffered an off on lap three at Westfield while Richard Cooper, who made a terrific start to move up to third.

A lap later Easton suffered his bad off at the Hawthorns which completely wrecked his PBM Kawasaki machine.

Brookes, who had nipped ahead of Byrne just before the safety car period, got an excellent drive down the home straight to hold the lead. As the riders got back up to speed Byrne looked to hunt down Brookes by setting a new fastest lap of the race but his challenge was ended in dramatic fashion at the same corner where his Scottish team-mate went off.

After the second safety car period Brookes maintained a comfortable gap to Cooper while Ellison was unable to mount a challenge in third.

The Australian's victory on the Yamaha R1 marked the first win for the redeveloped bike in British Superbikes as Brookes closed the gap on Byrne to ten points ahead of race two.