I myself use joystick as a handbrake, and I haven't assinged it to emulate any key, atleast in LFS handbrake can be axis controlled. I just plugged my old Logitech stick in and I don't use profiler, it's only one useless process... First start LFS, then go to the control options and select that handbrake is used by axis. Then press recalibrate and calibrate your wheel normally, but with joystick only that part of that axis you want to be the handbrake axis. IE. I just pulled joystick towards me from the center and then centered it again. After calibrating, press select lock, to prevent LFS calibrating joystick during game. Then go to the axis options and for handbrake select that axis, invert if necessary.
When using handbrake with axis, it's much more better than button, because you can control the amount of power.
Hope my English was good enough, so you can follow my instructions.