RAIN, or the threat of rain, made for an eventful trio of Thundersport GB races at Rockingham for Bradford's David Brook.

Not surprisingly given the changeable conditions, the Clayton Heights rider came off in race two, unfortunately when he was leading the Superstock category by a second and a half, but he also claimed two podium finishes.

Brook said: "Rockingham is like Marmite. Most racers either love or hate it, whereas I have no strong views. It is, however, horrendously slippy and the walls are very close in places, which test people’s nerves!

"Adam Shelton fell victim to a tyre wall and a broken leg, which will see him miss one to two rounds having been leading the Superstock, so my best wishes go out to him."

Brook managed third place in qualifying but didn't realise that until he had finished as the pit boards cannot be seen from the circuit and the pit wall is also far from the track.

Brook said: "You're doing 150mph on the straights and it's all a bit hectic. Just half a second off pole was near enough for me though as I felt I could do the business over race distance."

And his efforts in race one certainly backed up his optimism, with Brook adding: "I got away perfectly and was second into turn one behind Adam.

"We both notched a stonking lap, crossing the line 1.4 seconds quicker than the next best, recently-retired British Superbike (BSB) rider and top-six BSB Superstock 1000 rider Joe Burns.

"I plugged away but couldn't hang on to Adam, who has been running the SC1 qualifying tyres all year, which offer the edge grip I don’t have on the harder SC2 but the reason I don’t run them is they're illegal at BSB, so I don’t want to give myself grip that I can’t have when I step up to the national class.

"I clung on as long as I could but Joe eventually passed me and I finished 2.5 seconds behind him when the race was red-flagged due to Adam's crash at turn two."

Race two was much more testing due to rain being forecasted for start time.

Brook said: "Simple weather makes for simple decisions. Wet is wet tyres and dry is dry tyres but the rain was due to land at 11am and we were out at 11am.

"The organisers decided to postpone the start for ten minutes so we could change to wets after declaring it a wet race.

"I decided to stick with the dry tyres but just wished the weather would hold out! We got to the grid and the spitting had eased off but rain was imminent.

"I wasn't the only one to stick with dry tyres, as most of the front three rows were on drys, so it was game on.

"I pushed as hard as I dare for four laps. I got a great start and was first in Stock with a good 1.5-second lead over the second Stock but the front went with no warning.

"No regrets though. There was just nothing I could do and I had to just run with what I had."

Race three was run in torrential rain, which at least takes away the uncertainty.

However, Brook did have a problem other than the weather. He explained: "The bike’s forks were bent from the crash in race two and I had no spares, so we just had to do our best to line them up and compromise as best we could.

"A poor start led to a pretty uneventful race. The bike’s front end was really wooden and I had no feel at all but I was happy with a third with a bent bike!"

Brook is sixth in the Thundersport GB GP1 standings with 155 points behind leader Curtis Wright (281) but third in the Superstock 1000 standings with 213 points behind Shelton (257) and Shane Pearson (256).