Jason O’Halloran’s march towards 2021 Bennetts British Superbike success continued at Donington Park on Saturday as the McAMS Yamaha rider took the opening race of the weekend from Honda’s Glenn Irwin and team-mate Tarran Mackenzie.
Earlier rain had dissipated to result in a dry race being declared and it was O’Halloran who got the jump off the line only for Irwin to nose ahead at the Old Hairpin and it was the Honda man who led at the end of the first lap from Mackenzie, O’Halloran, Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati), Andrew Irwin (Synetiq BMW) and Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki), the latter having moved up from 11th on the grid.
Iddon was in determined mood though and, second time around he went from fourth to first but it was Vickers who was the fastest man on track although he remained in sixth albeit only three quarters of a second off the lead.
O’Halloran got back ahead of his team-mate on lap three, albeit briefly, and Irwin took the lead back from Iddon but the safety car was out a lap later after Joey Thompson (NP Motorcycles BMW) crashed on the exit of Coppice.
Racing resumed on the eighth lap with Irwin getting a good jump from the pursuing pack as O’Halloran and Mackenzie continued to dispute third and fourth whilst Vickers grabbed fifth from Andrew Irwin as they dived through Schwantz Curve.
At half race distance, Glenn Irwin’s lead remained a slender 0.385s but O’Halloran was now up into second having slipped by Iddon coming into the chicane and Mackenzie followed him by soon after, the young Scot having set a new lap record at 1’06.206.
Vickers was still in fifth and well in touch and, indeed, he got by Iddon for fourth on the 11th lap with Andrew Irwin continuing in sixth as he fought off the close attentions of Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Ducati) and Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW).
O’Halloran set a new lap record on the 13th lap and he was now in the lead from Irwin by almost half a second, Mackenzie still in third and Iddon now back up to fourth from Vickers.
A lap later and it was a McAMS Yamaha 1-2 as Mackenzie relegated Irwin to third but all the time O’Halloran was pulling away and as the race entered its final third, his advantage was almost a second.
Indeed, this had crept up to 1.1s at the end of lap 16 and all eyes were focused on the battle for second which was now a four-way dice between Mackenzie, Irwin, Iddon and Vickers. Bridewell was now in sixth but some 1.2s adrift of fifth placed Vickers who had to run on slightly at the chicane after getting in a bit too deep.
O’Halloran had no such concerns and he duly took his eighth win of the season by 1.86s, and the maximum podium credits with it, but a last lap, last corner move enabled Irwin to grab second from Mackenzie.
Iddon took fourth but Vickers was penalised two-seconds for his indiscretion at the chicane, dropping to sixth as a result, and that allowed Bridewell to take fifth with Andrew Irwin, Lee Jackson, Hickman and Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) completing the top ten.
Josh Brookes’ woes continued with the reigning champion back in 18th on the VisionTrack Ducati.
