When the SRT Petronas MotoGP team restructured at the end of 2021, Mark ‘Brains’ Woodage decided it was time to head home full-time to Sheffield. Twenty years had been spent in racing paddocks – from world Supersport to the Isle of Man TT – with the last decade in MotoGP spent as a technical director and crew chief working most recently with John McPhee and Jake Dixon.
In between races he was nurturing other passions and steadily building his tuning shop, MJW Specialists. Looking after engine and suspension rebuilds with a particular interest in two-stroke motocrossers, Woodage also began preparing motorcycles for the film industry. Whenever you see a motorcycle in a Marvel movie, chances are Woodage is behind it. After preparing Tom Cruise for his latest Mission: Impossible foray, the racing paddock beckoned again when Faye Ho (team boss of the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team) called to say she had just signed Josh Brookes and secured BMW factory backing for its 2023 British Superbike campaign.
The Aussie connection with Woodage is strong, having worked with Cameron Donald at the Isle of Man at Wilson Craig Honda and again with Norton. The chance to spearhead the career revival of two-time BSB champion Josh Brookes was too good an opportunity to turn down.
“I had this good feeling about the project – that fire inside was lit – and I thought, ‘This is why we go racing. We can win this championship with Josh Brookes’… so I said to Faye,
