Jason O’Halloran celebrated his second victory in the 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship in the BikeSocial Sprint Race at Thruxton with the McAMS Yamaha rider delivering a winning performance as rookie Charlie Nesbitt celebrated a debut podium finish for MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing.
O’Halloran had started from the Omologato Pole Position and he hit the front of the pack, but Lee Jackson briefly took the lead on lap five, but the ‘O’Show’ retaliated to regain the position a lap later.
O’Halloran was then at the head of the pack but it wasn’t until the closing laps when he was able to break away from the freight train of riders lining up in the podium battle at the Hampshire circuit.
The pack in the battle for the final podium positions comprised four riders as the rookies were embroiled in the tussle with Charlie Nesbitt and Max Cook taking on Ryan Vickers and Lee Jackson.
On the final lap, Vickers and Jackson were trading blows into the Chicane for the final time, but the pair gave Nesbitt the opportunity he needed and he outdragged them to the chequered flag to take a first Bennetts BSB podium finish, becoming the tenth rider this season to celebrate a top three result. The first of the season for the MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing as they held off Vickers to the line by 0.111s.
Vickers only narrowly claimed third though; 0.013s ahead of Cook on the Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki with Jackson completing the top five in an intense opening race at Thruxton.
Leon Haslam worked his way through to finish sixth for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad Team as he held off Danny Kent and Kyle Ryde, who had earlier been involved in the battle for the podium on the second LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha.
Glenn Irwin was the leading Ducati in ninth ahead of Peter Hickman who completed the top ten, but it was the worst result of the season so far for championship leader Tommy Bridewell who ended 14th but still holds the advantage in the standings ahead of tomorrow’s two races.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Thruxton, BikeSocial Sprint Race result:
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha)
- Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing) +1.591s
- Ryan Vickers (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) +1.702s
- Max Cook (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) +1.715s
- Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) +1.751s
- Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad) +5.132s
- Danny Kent (Lovell Kent Racing Honda) +5.200s
- Kyle Ryde (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) +5.377s
- Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati) +5.517s
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW Motorrad) +5.819s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings:
- Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati) 260
- Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati) 230.5
- Kyle Ryde (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) 189
- Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad) 182
- Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW Motorrad) 178
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 176.5
- Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) 153.5
- Ryan Vickers (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) 152
- Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 146
- Danny Kent (Lovell Kent Racing Honda) 109
Jason O’Halloran
McAMS Yamaha
“We knew from yesterday we had good pace, we spent a lot of time doing long runs and I was pretty confident ahead of the race that I knew what pace I wanted to do.
“I ended up at the front early on and controlled the pace, in the middle part of the race there wasn’t much of a gap behind me so I let Lee go to the front so I could see what he could do, I figured out pretty much straight away that I wanted to be back in front so I overtook him and controlled it over the last few laps and managed to built a bit of a gap.
“It’s been the first weekend we’ve had a really smooth weekend, when you start your weekend on the front foot you can build your momentum and focus on strategy for the races.
“I think the whole team needed that today, we didn’t have a bad Brands Hatch with a top five but we want to win races. We’ve done a lot of work between the two rounds and come here with a better package and I feel like we all deserve that.”
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