DAO Racing Honda secured their best results of the 2026 season in Sunday’s sprint race at Knockhill, with Josh Brookes achieving seventh and Lee Jackson eighth, following a strong weekend that saw them considerably increase their Championship points tally.

Torrential rain played havoc with Friday’s free practice sessions; however, both riders rode sensibly in the tricky conditions, with Brookes ending the day fastest on combined times. Due to the conditions, the organisers moved the third and final free practice session to Saturday morning, alongside the all-important pre-qualifying session.

Sun-blessed skies greeted the Scottish circuit on Saturday, and after a positive dry final free practice session, the pair progressed directly into Q2 for the afternoon’s qualifying session. The duo qualified well, with Jackson posting his personal best of the weekend, a 47.752, to line up ninth for the opening 30-lap race, with team-mate Brookes one row behind in 13th.

Just two hours later, race one of the weekend got underway, with Lee and Josh making great starts and holding their grid positions after the opening lap before quickly settling into the race. By lap 11, Lee had dropped two positions to 11th, with Josh hot on his coattails in 12th.

At mid-race distance, the pair were locked in a battle for ninth following a crash for Max Cook, and the retirement of Bradley Ray. Jackson continued to hold off his team-mate as they hunted down Leon Haslam, who lay ahead. However, with just three laps to go, Brookes made his move to inherit ninth, dropping ‘LeeBob’ back to 10th. The Australian then began to pull a manageable gap, and with Jackson beginning to tire due to the injury he sustained at the previous round, the pair took the flag inside the top ten and collected valuable Championship points.

Sunday once again saw bright sunshine bless the 1.2-mile Fife venue, and after a host of changes overnight, the team were confident of a positive set of races.

By virtue of their lap times achieved in Saturday’s opening race, Lee started Sunday’s sprint race from 11th, with Brookes one place behind in 12th.

As the lights went out to signal the start of the 20-lap sprint race, the pair once again made good starts, with Jackson moving up one place to 10th after the opening lap and Brookes holding position in 12th, with his sights set on the group battling for fourth.

After a safety car deployment following a crash involving Joe Talbot, Luke Hedger, Rhys Irwin and Richard Kerr, the race resumed on lap eight with Brookes and Jackson running in 10th and 11th respectively as they chased down the group ahead.

By half-race distance, they had inherited eighth and ninth following a crash for Christian Iddon and Ryan Vickers, and they began to reel in the group ahead, which continued to battle for fourth. With six laps to go, they gained another position following a crash for Glenn Irwin. However, they ran out of laps to make any further progress, with Josh crossing the line in seventh and Jackson in eighth, securing their best results of the 2026 season in the process.

For the third and final race of the weekend, Josh started from 10th on the grid, with Jackson just two places behind in 12th, courtesy of their lap times from the previous sprint race.

Once again, both riders made their customary good starts from the lights. However, after the first lap, Josh dropped back one place to 11th while Lee held 12th. After three laps, though, the red flag was shown due to a mechanical issue for Danny Kent, forcing a restart.

Following a clean-up operation, the race was restarted over 25 laps, with Josh starting from 10th and Lee from 11th. The opening lap saw the pair hold position once again after good starts, before getting their heads down and beginning to hunt down the group battling for fifth.

By lap 10, that group had broken away, leaving Josh and Lee battling with Christian Iddon and Max Cook for ninth. In the process, Lee made his way past Brookes for 10th place, but the pair then began to dice it out, with the Australian fighting back three laps later to regain his position.

With five laps to go, Josh had pulled a manageable gap of 2.6 seconds over ‘LeeBob’ and set off in pursuit of Christian Iddon, who lay just over one second ahead. The ‘BadBoy’ was consistently quicker than the Yamaha rider, and on the final lap he made his move at the last corner and out-dragged him to the line, taking the flag in ninth, with Jackson crossing the line in a lonely 11th.

Josh Brookes: “I feel like we’ve reset our target for the moment, last year we had a win and a podium and that makes you want to be in that range all the time. But we’ve had to re-evaluate our position, set new goals and be more realistic. The results this weekend have matched our goals, we’ve operated the bike in a completely different area, and I feel good that the we’ve had to make small changes to it.

“Our final debrief of the weekend has been exciting, we’re talking about different things electronically with the bike to help us going forward into the next round at Snetterton. We’re in a different area to work now, and for me and the team that’s exciting, whereas before we felt like we were stuck at a dead end and not seeing any sign of improvements.

“I don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up, but it’s encouraging, it’s positive that we have new options to work towards and unlock more performance with the bike going forward.”

Lee Jackson: “Coming back from what happened in the last race at Donington Park I knew it was going to be a tough weekend, and the weather on Friday actually took a little bit pressure off me and off my foot, which really helped.

“I was expecting a little more from the weekend, Knockhill is not an easy track but it’s one I’ve often gone well at in the past, however it’s not been easy. We’ve got a seasons best result of eighth but it’s not where I want to be, I want to be up the front and in the fight for the podium.

“I don’t feel like we’ve been able to extract the best out of the bike, but the team have worked so hard to help me fight, I want to be able to be closer to the front and I know the team want that as well. We’ll move to Snetterton now, continue to work hard and aim for the best results we can.”

Team manager Jonny Bagnall: “Coming to Knockhill after the Isle of Man TT is a little bit of a culture shock for all of the team, but we came with some ideas that we discovered and thought it would be good to put to short circuit use. We used FP1 and FP2 to try those things out, get a direction with them. It has been positive in a sense that we have achieved our best results of the season, but it’s not where we want to be.

“We’re still working hard in the background trying to improve the package we have, we’re always searching for new ideas and each round we’re learning. We’ll keep at it and take the positives from this weekend into the next round at Snetterton.”

Josh Brookes currently sits 12th in the 2026 ZYN BSB Championship on 42 points, with Lee Jackson sat 11th on 46 points. The team now has a 10-day break from action before heading south to Norfolk and the Snetterton 300 circuit for round four of the season.