Josh Brookes - The Mentality of a TT Racer

One of the most common questions about the TT is “how does it feel?” Asphalt & Rubber sat down with Josh Brookes at the 2017 Isle of Man TT to find an answer to that question.

Josh Brookes is as experienced as any short-circuit rider currently plying their trade. As a former Australian and British Superbike champion, World Supersport race winner, Suzuka 8-Hour podium finisher, and WorldSBK race winner, his CV is impressive, but it counted for very little when he made his debut at the Isle of Man TT in 2013.

That year, the Australian left the island with a lap record for the fastest newcomer, and his reputation enhanced as the most exciting up and coming rider at the TT.

He also left with an itch that has continued to require scratching. His return in 2014 saw him ride a Yamaha and claim a Top 10 finish at the Senior TT, but since then circumstances have forced him to the sidelines.

“I love the TT,” beamed Brookes. “I can now remember clearer just now much of a disappointment it was when I wasn’t able to come back in 2015. Having a year off as well, it meant that I fell back into my old ways of just focusing on short-circuit.”

“Last year being in WorldSBK meant that all my focus was on that, and it took away some of the disappointment of missing the TT. I did come over last year during the TT, and we went trial riding across the island to watch the races.”

“When we were watching all the other riders on track, it really started to sink in that I’d rather be riding than watching. Just riding the event isn’t enough for me; I need something more.”

Riding the Norton this year will mean a third different bike in three years at the TT, but Brookes feels that the bike offers more than enough potential to see him have some results.

While the Norton made steps forward last year, there is still plenty of work to be done, and for Brookes there’s also a lot to do to get back up to speed.

Despite having been racing in British Superbike, this year the 34-year-old admitted that bike fitness and sharpness are very different beasts for road racing compared to short circuits.

“If you’ve not been not riding for a few months, and then go onto a short-circuit it takes time to readjust to the speed and the sensations. You need to adjust before you get to that point where the speed doesn’t affect you any more. The same thing happens here.”

“You can ride short-circuit all year long, but when you get here it all happens again. On a short-circuit, everything is so far away that there’s nothing really to gauge your reference of speed, whereas when you come here, you’ve literally got people’s front doors and driveway posts and letter boxes, you name it. All the elements, trees… Everything’s going past you and it’s going past you fast!”

“It’s quite clever the way the human mind is capable of changing the perception of speed. When you first get here, things are passing you at the same speed as they are on the day you leave, but the day you get here is the fastest lap you ever do, because it’s going past so quick.”

“Lap after lap, and day after day, everything seems to slow down. The track becomes easier. The corners become less. The speed at which you’re travelling appears to be less. Your body basically acclimatize to the environment.”

While the rider’s mind may adjust to the environment, the surroundings are so different to anything else that it provides unique challenges. The danger is ever-present at the TT, and it’s something that is so obvious to everyone, that it causes the riders to be placed under a much greater strain than at any other event.

“There’s a lot of history that I can reflect on here, this is the birth place of motorcycle racing, but there’s also a more selfish element to me wanting to race here. I get so much enjoyment from riding this track.”

“I’m riding a motorcycle in an environment which is completely uncontrolled. It’s not a safe environment to ride a motorcycle. It’s an environment where you have to measure the risk versus the reward.”

“You take back far more from riding here than I can explain in words. Something happens to you emotionally while you’re riding around this track. Honestly, you have to have felt it to understand.”

“To me, when we get to the start line, it does feel like any other race even though there’s a lot more nervous energy amongst the paddock. For me though, it’s not different to race here compared to short-circuits. I think that the people around short-circuit racing feel like when you go out on the track that you’re safe.”

“They think you’re safe, but they don’t go into the first corner with you, and feel what it’s like to go in thirty-deep into the first turn at over 100 mile an hour every time!”

“They don’t recognize, or just the general public and people around you don’t recognize, the danger, so they don’t feel so much that nervous energy and carry nervous energy about the paddock at a short-circuit.”

“But here at the TT, even for the average person, it’s more recognized that there’s a danger. So that carries a lot of nervous energy. The energy sort of just hums about the paddock, and then you carry a lot of that with you.”

“You’re not wanting to do that, but it just tends to leech from other people onto you that there’s something to be nervous about. Then once you hop on your bike and you set off, like any other race, that nervous energy goes away.”

“When you’re riding, it’s not like someone else is holding the brake for you. You get to choose when you brake, and you get to choose when you open the gas.”

“So, you literally start to brake when you don’t feel like you want to go any faster, and you need to slow down. You don’t open the gas until you feel like it’s your moment to accelerate.”

“It’s all your own choices and your own actions, so you don’t feel nervous when you’re riding the bike. It’s only all the worry from the people around you that leeches that nervous energy onto you.”

With the track flowing past him, and the run to Bray Hill under way, Brookes can enjoy the track and the sensations of racing the world’s most incredible race track.

For the two-time World Supersport race-winner, the danger is not a thought, and amazingly he feels more relaxed racing at the TT than he does on a short-circuit.

“When I’m on the bike, my riding style isn’t something I think about. You do go into a state of natural self-preservation. There are corners on this track where I know I can go quicker.”

“I know there are corners that I could get on the brakes deeper, and carry more speed, but as the track’s coming at you through your eyes, something in your brain stops you from being able to hold the throttle at full.”

“It makes you grab hold of the brakes, like self-preservation. Even though you know by mental calculation that you can go quicker, there’s something that always stops you from doing that. It always pulls you up short of where the danger lies.”

“You do get to a point where you know from the previous laps that you’ve done, gone through a section perfectly on every lap, and you start to then build up some confidence in your mind.”

“That allows you to then go closer and closer to the limit, but it’s not nearly the limit like you call on a short-circuit. Both events and races and laps are intense, but for different reasons. The riding and the way you feel on the bike in your mind is very relaxed here, whereas a lap around a short-circuit is so intense.”

“On a short-circuit, you’re at the point of nearly crashing, or you have to be, to be fast all the time. Although it doesn’t maybe look like it from the outside, every time you go out on the track you’re normally trying to find the limit of something, whether it’s your tires, the line, or the apex, or the lean angle, or the adhesion.”

“It’s always trying to find the limit of what you can do with that bike every single apex, every single corner, every time you jump the brakes.”

“There’s a huge amount of intensity on a short-circuit, whereas at the TT it’s intense because there’s a lot of information to process. But within your own thoughts, you feel very, very relaxed. It’s a much calmer environment in your own thoughts.”

“The only way I can describe it is calm, unless you’re riding through the corners. You actually feel very calm in yourself compared to short-circuit. But the intensity is there through another medium – the actual speed of things passing you. That creates an intensity.”