Max Cook admits “I don’t love the wet” after “tough” final 2026 BSB race

Max Cook took fifth in a “tough” final BSB race of 2026 at a sodden Brands Hatch.

Race 3 had been brought forward by almost half-an-hour in the schedule as BSB tried to avoid the heavy rain forecast for 16:00 at the Kent venue.

But the rain arrived in any case, and the race was red flagged on the warm-up lap with the track temperature below 10C and excessive spray prompting a delay to the start.

20 minutes later and the track was still wet, but far less saturated and therefore in a more race-able condition.

But for Cook the conditions still proved difficult, made tougher by what he felt was a lack of tyre temperature, perhaps coming from an over-cautious warm-up lap.

“The last race, it was tough,” Cook admitted, speaking to Crash.net after Race 3 at Brands Hatch.

“I don’t really love the wet to be honest, especially when it’s this cold. 

“I went to try and get my head down to try to keep the heat in the tyres, but I just had a lot of moments on the left-handers, like straight away I had so many moments on the lefts, like early days. 

“I tried to be committed, but maybe I did the warm-up lap too slow, or something. I had no grip on the lefts at all to start with. 

“I managed to get a bit of a groove on and I wanted to go with Joe [Talbot], obviously, because we’re on the same bike and Joe’s obviously so good in the wet, and fair play to him for finishing third – we’re a team and we’re ending the season on a high. 

“The race then came to me in the mid-part of the race [but] I made a mistake and dropped back from Leon [Haslam] and Christian [Iddon], and then I started to close in on them pretty quick. Then I passed Leon and managed to gap him, and had a lonely fifth. Happy to bring it home. 

“Season’s been mega, happy to be back here next year as well. Just, that last race, didn’t want it to be super-wet, but fifth place, it’s a solid effort.”

Cook remains with the Bimota team for 2027, and is hopeful that the technical overhaul for next year’s regulations will be to the KB998’s advantage.

“I think the rule changes should play to our advantage – chassis is the strong point of the Bimota,” he said.

“So, I think it could be amazing. 

“We’ll see next year, obviously [at the moment] we have no idea. 

“Obviously, we won’t know until the early part of next year what’s going on, what the bike’s like to ride and things, but I’m really excited to stay with the team next year.”