McAMS’s Jason O’Halloran’s march towards this year’s Bennetts British Superbike Championship continued and after years of trying he finally got a Superbike win at his local Cadwell Park.

The Yamaha rider put in three polished rides to collect 11 more podium credits across the weekend, which included his ninth win in an already stellar season, and although he had to give second best to Peter Hickman in the first two races, if anyone looked likely to beat the BMW man, then it was the Australian.
 
“It’s been an amazing weekend and whilst I know I’ve done a couple of triples this year, the final race win this weekend means a lot to me,” O’Halloran said afterwards. “I’ve wanted to win here for a long time as it’s the closest I’ve got to a home round.”
 
“Over the years, I’ve had a lot of local support from both the fans and local people sponsoring me so it’s a special place for me and I’m really pleased we could do it.”
 
The weekend started with second place for the runaway championship leader in Saturday’s race and he admitted it took longer than he would have liked to have got by Honda’s Glenn Irwin, which was ultimately what allowed Hickman to edge clear.
 
“It was a good race. Glenn got the jump and I knew I had to get to the front so got by him straightaway but he came right back by me again before the end of the first lap! It was difficult at the beginning as the front group were all quick in different places and by the time I got Glenn, Hicky had already done the both of us!”
 
“The weather meant we didn’t get a lot of dry track time to get a setting for the race so to be that competitive was really good. I felt Hicky had a bit more speed than us in the middle part of the race but I felt very good at the end.”
 
Sunday’s opener followed a similar pattern although this time it was closer, and going into the final lap O’Halloran was still pushing his rival hard. A move looked possible but in the end second place was again the outcome.
 
“I’d been working at Pete for the last 4-5 laps and was with him on the last lap but wasn’t close enough to make a move at Park. I probably needed two laps to properly set it up,” he admitted.
 
It looked like that would be his best shot of glory in the final race too but when Hickman had a slide going through Coppice on the final lap, he lost drive all the way up and through Charlie’s and O’Halloran dived up the inside.
 
“Fair play to Pete, he set such a good pace and I kept telling myself not to let him break me. He made a little mistake and I went for the inside which was a bit of a sketchy pass as it’s not a normal place to overtake. I never gave up and went for the opportunity when it arose.”
 
As well as leading team-mate Tarran Mackenzie and Christian Iddon by a whopping 119 points in the championship standings – illustration of his dominance in the first six rounds – he now has 56 podium credits, 33 more than anyone else.