Jason O’Halloran headed to last weekend’s Donington Park BSB without having scored a podium since his switch from Yamaha to Kawasaki over the winter. 

Strong pace in Friday practice at Donington saw the Australian end day one second overall behind only Ryan Vickers. He had speed for the front row on Saturday, too, but lost the front in the final turn of his Superpole lap, and then had it cancelled for track limits anyway. 

It meant he started 14th for what was a shortened Race 1, which took him immediately out of the fight, and Sunday’s 12-lap Race 2 saw O’Halloran retire on lap six while in the front group.

However, he then took a memorable win in Race 3, the final result of what was overall a promising weekend for the #22.

“It feels good to be on top,” O’Halloran said after Race 3. “[It’s] nice after you’ve had a couple of steady rounds to get to the top and win.”

O’Halloran explained that the process of getting him back to the front has been much to do with the work he and the Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki team have done to adapt the ZX-10RR to his style.

“The team have been working really hard on the bike and adapting it to my style and what I’ve been looking for with the feeling, and it’s all coming together,” he said.

O’Halloran’s experience with other manufacturers had helped him understand what he needed from the bike.

“I feel like I’ve got a lot of experience now,” he said. “I’ve ridden the Honda, the Yamaha, now the Kawasaki. I know what I want, I know what I’m looking for from the bike, and when you’ve got a team like the guys we’ve got here and they can give it to you, you can make anything work. 

“So, I was confident when I got on the Kawasaki that I could win on it, it was just going to take a little bit of time to adapt. They’ve given me everything that I’ve asked for. It’s nice to jump off the Yamaha, get onto a Kawasaki and win on that.”

Race 3 at Donington has been lauded as the best BSB race of the season so far, with O’Halloran eventually coming out on top in a battle that also featured Tommy Bridewell, Danny Kent, and Glenn Irwin, who retained his championship lead despite finishing last of the four.

“I enjoyed that race,” said O’Halloran, whose Donington Triumph was his 27th in BSB. “I just loved being back in the battle, back at the front, and it’s nice when you’re in a fight like that when you can win.”

By the end, there was little strategy involved, O’Halloran thought. 

“By the end, you’re just trying to hold position,” he said. “You don’t want to sit too far back because you know there’s people behind you. But if you don’t feel like you’ve got the pace to get away, you don’t want to be at the front, either. 

“So, I timed it pretty good. I only had about a-lap-and-a-half to go once I got to the front, [and] I felt pretty solid once I got to the front, and just put my head down and did my thing.

“Hopefully it’s a snowball now going forwards to keep this going, and that we’re fast enough to be at the front fighting away and get ourselves in the mix.”

BSB heads to Knockhill next on 14-16 June.