Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran finished the final MCE British Superbike race at Assen on the third step of the podium, and it was only the second time that the Australian has used the harder SC1 rear Pirelli tyre this season and he gained some good experience riding with it in cooler temperature’s.
The first time that the Fireblade rider used the harder rear was in race two at Silverstone, and he admitted that he is still a little ‘inexperienced’ with it, compared to the softer SC0 tyre.
In race two he managed to hold on to third, but in the end did not have enough grip on the tyre to challenge JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam and Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne for the victory. O’Halloran is fifth in the overall standings, and on a total of 556 points.
“It was a frantic race and I got a good start and got to the front and I had a big moment in the first lap on one of the kerbs, and then I dropped back to second or third I think,” said O’Halloran at the track.
“I tried to settle in and let the guys in front find where the dry bits were. The whole track was dry but the kerbs I wasn’t sure about after that moment on the first lap.
“I eased into the race and I kept watching the board and I kept seeing plus zero and eventually I saw a name on the board and there was six or seven next to it, so I knew it was a big group.
“Every time someone came by me I tried to counter attack straight back and it was a good race. I didn’t have any tyre at the end to challenge with these two boys (Byrne and Haslam) and they got second on us in the last two laps. But really pleased to hang on to the podium and get a few points towards our championship.
“We had to use the hard tyre this weekend because of the weather conditions and the only other place we’ve used it was in the second race at Silverstone. We’re a little bit inexperienced with
it but we’ve seen we can get some good times out of it and we can do some work with it as we head to Brands Hatch and hopefully get three podiums there.”