McAMS Yamaha’s Jason O’Halloran drew the first blood of the 2021 Bennetts British Superbike season, topping the timesheets in a wet free practice one at Oulton.
After a breezy morning, rain began to fall as pitlane opened and when it closed, O’Halloran had kept up his pre-season test form, shifting BMW’s Andrew Irwin off top spot by 0.030s with his last lap.
The Synetiq-backed Irwin had topped the sheets with his final effort of 1’46.383 but O’Halloran just had the edge while Irwin’s Honda-mounted brother Glenn grabbed third on a 1’46.705.
Too-tall Danny Buchan bagged fourth on the second Synetiq BMW with Liverpool’s Josh Owens putting the CDH Kawasaki in sixth place, a little under a second off the pace.
Former Moto3 world champ Danny Kent put his Buildbase Suzuki in fifth, just a tenth ahead of Owens.
Bradley Ray made it three M1000RRs in the top seven while Christian Iddon was first Ducati in eighth. Tommy Bridewell and Lee Jackson wrapped up the top ten.
Reigning champion Josh Brookes finished down in 12th and 2.3s off the pace with Joe Francis ahead of him. Peter Hickman, Gino Rea and Rory Skinner completed the top ten.
