Jason O’Halloran won Sunday’s opening Bennetts British Superbike race at Snetterton, the McAMS Yamaha rider coming home ahead of team-mate Tarran Mackenzie after a titanic tussle.
Tommy Bridewell took third on the Oxford Products Racing Suzuki but O’Halloran’s victory, his 10th of the season, saw him extend his championship lead further.
It was Gino Rea who grabbed the holeshot from his second row start and the Buildbase Suzuki rider led the field round at the end of the first lap with Josh Brookes, Mackenzie, Bridewell, O’Halloran and Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) in hot pursuit.
The top-six remained the same next time around, separated by just 0.844s, but on lap three Mackenzie went up the inside of Brookes at Agostini’s and the Australian then lost two more places, firstly to O’Halloran after running wide at Oggies on the VisionTrack Ducati and then again to Bridewell.
Brookes then ran wide for a third time, this time at Montreal, on the fourth lap dropping back to eighth and that saw him drop into the clutches of the Synetiq BMW pairing of Danny Buchan and Andrew Irwin.
Back at the front and it was Rea’s turn to run wide which dropped him back to fifth and at the end of lap four the order was now Mackenzie, O’Halloran, Bridewell, Jackson, Rea and Ryan Vickers on the RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki..
Lap six saw O’Halloran almost tuck the front at Montreal and that allowed Bridewell to get ahead with the front three now half a second clear of Rea, Jackson, Vickers and Andrew Irwin who were battling for fourth.
However, Rea had designs on the top three and a lap later he was right behind O’Halloran having opened up a gap over Vickers, Jackson, Irwin, Brookes and co.
Just half a second covered the top four and on lap eight, half race distance, O’Halloran moved back into second after slipping up the inside of Bridewell at Montreal. Jackson, meanwhile, was trying to bridge the gap to fourth and Brookes had regrouped, fighting his way back up to sixth.
Less than three-seconds was still covering the top ten as they started the tenth lap although the gap from fourth to fifth had stretched once more now standing at 1.5s with Brookes and Jackson continuing to dispute fifth. Vickers then lost time after a move by Andrew Irwin through Nelson saw him drop to 11th.
Starting lap 12 and there was still only half a second between Mackenzie, O.Halloran and Bridewell with Rea having dropped back slightly whilst Brookes was closing back in on the Suzuki rider having broken away from Jackson who now had Andrew Irwin and Vickers for company.
O’Halloran took the lead on lap 13, diving up the inside at Montreal and although Mackenzie hit back at Agostini’s, he immediately ran wide to hand the advantage back to his team-mate. However, he was back ahead at the Bomb Hole whilst Bridewell continued to keep a watching brief in third.
Brookes got ahead of Rea on lap 14 and seconds later Bridewell had a moment after catching his knee on the dirt coming through Coram. Buchan was another rider to have a moment after Iddon went up the inside of him and he dropped out of the top-10 as a result.
O’Halloran was back in the lead on the penultimate lap but Mackenzie went back ahead at his favourite Agostini’s only for O’Halloran to retaliate at the end of the back straight and he duly held on for his tenth win of the season.
Mackenzie had to settle for second with Bridewell in third and Brookes kept Rea and Jackson at bay for his second fourth place of the weekend. Vickers got the better of Irwin for seventh with Rory Skinner and Peter Hickman completing the top-10.
