Jason O’Halloran will attempt to kick-start his 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB) season title campaign at Oulton Park this weekend following a ‘fairly steady’ start at Silverstone.
Coming into the 2023 BSB season as a title favourite after accumulating 18 wins over the last two seasons and enjoyed stints in the overall lead, Oulton Park has become something of a hoodoo venue for O’Halloran since 2021.
Though it was the scene of his first BSB hat-trick at the start of the 2021 BSB season, upon his return at the start of the Title Showdown, the Aussie lost his advantage - and eventually the title - on the back of a crash and tyre woes.
Twelve months later O’Halloran came into the Title Showdown locked in battle with Bradley Ray, only to be barrelled out of two races in almost identical incidents, putting paid to any hopes of mounting a challenge.
Back in action this weekend for what will be McAMS Yamaha’s home event, O’Halloran is looking to build on the promise shown at Silverstone, despite failing to step foot on the podium.
“It was good to get started at Silverstone; it was a fairly steady one to be fair. We did that to get some information, it probably didn’t quite work out as good as what we had hoped for at Silverstone. I felt really good in myself and I feel overall we did a pretty good job for the first weekend of the year on the bike.
“I was looking forward to the Oulton Park test straight after it and hoped for some dry track time to work through a few bits, the first day was rained off and then on the second day I had a small crash early on. Luckily I was able to do the last session and managed to be fastest, which is always pretty good but more importantly I had a good feeling with the bike and I think setting wise and overall we are in a pretty good place for this weekend.
“The competition is always strong, and there are a lot of riders that love Oulton Park, including myself so I expect it to be a competitive weekend. But I expect to be in the fight for the top positons and I am looking forward to trying to get our first podiums and hopefully first win of the season and I can’t wait to get going.”