Jason O’Halloran’s charge towards this year’s British Superbike Championship continued at Snetterton at the weekend with the McAMS Yamaha rider chalking up his 10th win of the season.
With two third places taken in the other two races, seven more podium credits were added to his total and although team-mate and double race winner Tarran Mackenzie ate into his advantage, he still enjoys a healthy lead of 30 points. The results could have been better had he not mis-read his pit board in Saturday’s race but he was still satisfied with his weekend’s work.
“I was a bit nervous coming into the weekend given where we’ve been in the last two years at Snetterton but it’s been a really strong meeting for us,” O’Halloran said on Sunday afternoon. “That’s really important as we head to Silverstone next and having had similar issues there last year to what we had at Snetterton, it’s clear we’ve improved the bike.
“I was obviously a bit annoyed with myself on Saturday when I missed the last lap board. Taz made a little mistake at the last corner but I got a good drive along the straight to take the lead but when I looked back, I was the only one on track! I messed up but knew we had a few things to iron out for Saturday as I was strong in the second half of the track but terrible at the beginning.”
The changes worked and the Australian was clearly in determined mood in Sunday’s opening race, which he duly won from Mackenzie by 0.305s. He then took third in the final race of the weekend, his 17th podium of the 21 races to take place so far this season.
“I didn’t want to lose Sunday’s opener after embarrassing myself on Saturday! I put a big move on Taz on the last lap and it was a really strong race. I didn’t quite have the tyre left in the final race after it had been stopped but it was another podium credit and another really strong weekend for us.”
‘That’s 10 wins and 17 podiums so far this year so I can’t complain. We had a really good test at Silverstone earlier this year and we’ve improved a lot since then so I can’t wait.”
