Jason O’Halloran topped the final Bennetts British Superbike Championship free practice session at Thruxton on Saturday morning with the McAMS Yamaha rider 0.136s clear of Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) with championship leader Christian iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) in third.
Good, dry conditions were the order of the morning after the rain on Friday and it was Friday’s pace setter Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) who set the early running with a first flying lap of 1’17.728s followed by Andrew Irwin (Synetiq BMW), Iddon, Jackson’s team-mate Rory Skinner, Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) and Glenn Irwin.
Jackson was the first to dip into the 1’16s with a time of 1’16.915s just five minutes into the session and Glenn Irwin moved up to second at the expense of his younger brother soon after.
The Honda man then went quickest with 1’16.456s which put him 0.056s ahead of Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) with Jackson, Ray, O’Halloran and Ryde now the top six.
Irwin went quicker still next time around with 1’16.289s and Peter Hickman was also on the move, the FHO Racing BMW rider up to fourth. Jackson slipped back to fifth with Gino Rea (Buildbase Suzuki) now up into sixth.
O’Halloran was the first to post a sub 1’15 lap and his time of 1’15.907s briefly sent him to the top of the leaderboard before Glenn Irwin pushed him back to second, the Honda clearly working well around the 2.35-mile circuit again after a lap of 1’15.883s. It was close though with the gap between the two just two hundredths of a second.
Buchan remained in third ahead of Iddon, Danny Kent (Buildbase Suzuki) and Rea but that soon changed with Jackson moving back into third although he was still half a second down on Irwin and O’Halloran.
Mid-way through the 30-minute session and Irwin and O’Halloran were still in command but Bradley Ray (Rich Rnergy OMG Racing BMW) cut the gap to the leader to 0.307s with Jackson pushed back to fourth and Rea back up to fifth with Ryde now sixth.
Irwin and O’Halloran continued to set the pace but it was a late lap of 1’15.261s that gave the Yamaha man the edge over Irwin with Iddon moving up the order to claim third at the chequered flag..
He was the only other rider to break the 1’16s barrier but Kent, going well at his local track, and Ray weren’t far behind with the duo close to Iddon and split by just 0.001s.
Hickman placed an eventual sixth ahead of Ryde, Jackson, Rea and Buchan. King of Brands Tarran Mackenzie, on the second McAMS Yamaha, was just outside the top ten in 11th while lap record holder Josh Brookes was 17th on the second VisionTrack Ducati, 1.9s adrift of O’Halloran’s table-topping time.
