Milwaukee Yamaha strengthen Showdown line-up with Smrz ahead of Assen

Milwaukee Yamaha will return to full strength with a two rider line-up ahead of the opening round of the MCE British Superbike Championship Showdown at Assen next weekend (18/19/20 September) when Jakub Smrz will join series leader Josh Brookes.

Smrz will be back on the MCE BSB grid after recovering from an injury sustained at Snetterton earlier in the season. The Czech contender has show strong form at the Dutch circuit in the past, scoring a front row qualifying performance previously, and is eager to race the new Yamaha for the first time with the title-contending team.

Smrz said: “First of all thank you to Milwaukee Yamaha for this opportunity because it was a really difficult beginning of the season for me and when things started to work well I unfortunately got injured. Of course I want to be racing and missing some rounds have made me more determined to come back and have good results.

“Shaun Muir’s team is one of the best in the championship and the new Yamaha has been performing so well with Josh, so I am looking forward to riding it for the first time. It will be all about how quickly I can get used to the R1, but Assen is one of my favourite tracks so that will help me. I feel positive, motivated and will do my best to show I can finish races on top.”

Team Manager Mick Shanley commented: “It was always the plan to return to a two rider line-up before the end of the season so to have the team back to full strength with a complete two rider line-up at Assen is perfect timing.

“Jakub has a lot of experience from his time on the world stage and also most recently in BSB and for the team it will be valuable to get some feedback from another perspective as we continue developing the R1. We know what we are capable of as we have seen from Josh’s performances recently, so we would like to see Jakub up at the sharp end, especially at this crucial point of the season.”