Josh Brooks says he’s the “exact opposite” of former teammate Peter Hickman.
Brooks and Hickman began highway racing within the 2010s, with Brooks participating in his first Isle of Man TT in 2013 and Hickman a 12 months later.
By 2023 they had been teammates at FHO BMW, however by that time every had achieved nice success elsewhere.
For Brooks, success has come on brief circuits, profitable BSB titles in 2015 and 2020. In the meantime, Hickman was one of the crucial formidable riders on the highway, particularly on 1,000cc machines.
Brooks additionally continued to dabble in highway racing, however solely intermittently. It wasn’t till he moved to FHO three years in the past that he competed in a number of consecutive highway races, and this 12 months shall be his fourth in a row on the TT.
One of many features of highway racing that’s so distinctive as a self-discipline, particularly for riders like Brooks and Hickman, is the month of Could.
This sounds very IndyCar-like, however the cause why Could is particular for riders who compete in each short-circuit and highway races is as a result of it is a month that requires a number of switching between disciplines.
For instance, the primary spherical of the BSB shall be held Could 3-5 this 12 months, and follow for the Northwest 200 begins Could 6. The TT begins in eight days, every week after North West concluded it could return to the observe at Donington for spherical two of the BSB.
It is a advanced interval, one which exposes imperfections in a rider’s skill to modify from one to the opposite.
That is the place Brooks sees a distinction between himself and Hickman.
“I believe it’s totally straightforward to go from highway racing again to brief circuits,” Brooks mentioned in an interview with Crash.web.
“If there’s any draw back, I believe it is going from BSB racing to highway circuit racing, as a result of the self-discipline of driving could be very totally different.
“I used to be team-mate with Hickey (Peter Hickman) and he mentioned he discovered a distinct path than he did. He was capable of soar on the highway and rise up to hurry immediately, but it surely took him some time to get his rhythm again after coming again to BSB.”
“I’m utterly the other.
“So I believe it is truly in all probability an excellent factor that I do not get in the way in which of BSB by doing road-related work, but it surely simply means I am unable to be P1 within the first session of a highway occasion, and I am a reasonably sluggish builder.
“However (…) if it retains you secure, it is a greater choice than the others.”
