Jason O’Halloran continued his imperious Bennetts British Superbike Championship form at Thruxton today, winning both races to secure a weekend hat-track following yesterday’s initial success for McAMS Yamaha.

O’Halloran swept the victories, but it was an incredibly close weekend at the high-speed Hampshire circuit, with seven riders, representing six different teams and five manufacturers stepping onto the podium.

In the second race of the weekend, O’Halloran instantly launched to the front of the pack ahead of Glenn Irwin and Lee Jackson. Christian Iddon, Ryan Vickers and Peter Hickman were tucked just behind them on a fiercely competitive opening lap.

Vickers went for a big move on Iddon at the Chicane on lap three and made contact, pushing the pair of them wide. The RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki rider was then issued a long lap penalty.

At the front though, O’Halloran gradually broke away from the pack. Glenn Irwin held second though, bouncing back from his Saturday crash, just ahead of Vickers who ran third before taking his penalty.

Tarran Mackenzie meanwhile, burst through the field. The McAMS Yamaha ace initially ran outside the top eight before working his way up the order to move into the podium fight.

There was disaster for VisionTrack Ducati’s Iddon as Jackson collected him and the pair crashed out of contention whilst battling for a place on the podium. The DNF for Iddon meant he lost the lead at the top of the standings to O’Halloran as the duo continued to swap positions on the overall table.

This resulted in a frenetic five-way scrap for second place, with Glenn Irwin facing stiff opposition from Vickers, Bradley Ray, Mackenzie and Hickman immediately behind. Vickers crashed out unhurt on the final lap as he was pushing for his first podium in Bennetts BSB, whilst Mackenzie seized the advantage to take second behind his teammate.

Glenn Irwin made a strong comeback on the final lap to get back ahead of Ray to claim the final place on the podium, his first of the season, whilst Hickman completed the top five for FHO Racing BMW.

Rain fell before the final race of the day, but O’Halloran proved to be a master of all conditions, claiming his third race win of the weekend in the damp. He held off Danny Buchan and Danny Kent, who celebrated his first podium finish.

The race was declared wet, but with the chance of a drying track, tyre choices proved to be mixed and at the start of the race, O’Halloran took the lead. The McAMS Yamaha rider made a late change on the grid to an intermediate rear tyre, but that gave Hickman and Mackenzie the edge over the opening laps as they soon moved ahead with their choice of the rain rear tyre.

Hickman grabbed the lead, and together with Mackenzie, they initially had gapped the pack as O’Halloran diced with Lee Jackson for third over the opening laps.

Buchan made a charge through the order on board the SYNETIQ BMW with the intermediate rear tyre option, and by lap six he was hassling O’Halloran for third place. Buchan moved into second a lap later, but O’Halloran was instantly on the attack and he reclaimed the position as the track conditions continued to change and Hickman soon fell back into the clutches of the chasing group.

By the ninth lap, O’Halloran and Buchan made their move on Hickman to take the leading positions and two laps later the SYNETIQ BMW hit the front again. The McAMS Yamaha rider was leading again just a lap later and the pair continued to fight for win. At the chequered flag though, it was O’Halloran who had the edge over Buchan by 0.826s.

Meanwhile, Kent carved his way into a top-three position by lap 12 and he gapped the pack behind him to become the ninth different podium finisher of the season, a career first for the former Moto3 World Champion.

Vickers equalled his best result of the season in fourth place for the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki team ahead of the battling Irwin brothers with Andrew Irwin scoring his best finish in 2021 in fifth place.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Thruxton, Race 2 result:

1. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha)
2. Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +3.597s
3. Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +3.921s
4. Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +4.210s
5. Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +4.853s
6. Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +12.288s
7. Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +14.530s
8. Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +15.614s
9. Danny Kent (Buildbase Suzuki) +16.247s
10. Gino Rea (Buildbase Suzuki) +16.559s

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Thruxton, Race 3 result:

1. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha)
2. Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +0.826s
3. Danny Kent (Buildbase Suzuki) +1.834s
4. Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) +5.643s
5. Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ VBMW) +10.310s
6. Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +12.511s
7. Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +12.791s
8. Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +18.912s
9. Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +19.881s
10. Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +21.975s

Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after Thruxton:

1. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 232
2. Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) 190
3. Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 173
4. Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) 162
5. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 110
6. Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) 108
7. Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) 93
8. Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) 88

Jason O’Halloran – McAMS Yamaha
Triple race winner
“It’s been a very good weekend. Another triple, seven wins so far this year, four in the last six races – it’s been an amazing couple of weeks for us.

“A huge thanks to McAMS Yamaha, it’s been another weekend of changeable conditions and we all made really good decisions together. When you are working together as a team and bouncing off each other and you get results like that it just keeps you going.

“To win in the dry this weekend was fantastic, but to win in those conditions in the final race was unbelievable. I’m probably happier with the third race win than any win so far – it was such a tough race.

“It was a gamble on the grid to go with an inter and to push at the end when it was raining was really tricky, but we made it happen, got another win and I look forward to Donington in a couple of weeks.”

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