Jason O’Halloran took the honours in the opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship race at Thruxton on Saturday afternoon after the McAMS Yamaha rider got the verdict in a race stopped on the penultimate lap due to a crash involving Glenn Irwin.

The Honda Racing rider was fortunate to escape injury in the high-speed spill but O’Halloran’s victory saw him cut Christian Iddon’s championship lead to one point, the VisionTrack Ducati man taking second from Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW).

With the threatening black clouds rolling on by, the race thankfully got underway under sunny skies and it was O’Halloran who led at the end of the first lap from Irwin and Hickman. Joe Francis and Kyle Ryde were out though after the latter clipped the inside kerb and collected his fellow BMW rider.

That resulted in the safety car coming out for two laps but racing resumed on the fourth lap and when it did, Hickman wasted no time in moving ahead of Irwin at the chicane. Iddon remained in fourth ahead of Danny Kent (Buildbase Suzuki) and Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki).

At the end of lap five, O’Halloran’s lead over Hickman was almost half a second and Iddon had now overhauled Irwin too, Kent holding station in fifth ahead of Vickers.

Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) squeezed ahead of the latter though at the Complex next time around and Hickman also reduced O’Halloran’s lead by a tenth. The Yamaha man immediately retaliated and by the end of the seventh lap, his lead was back up to 0.581s.

At half race distance, O’Halloran still led Hickman by half a second with Iddon continuing to keep Irwin at bay but Ray and Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) were now in fifth and sixth with Vickers in seventh and Kent pushed back to eighth.

Title contenders Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) and Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) were down the order though in ninth and 11th respectively with both receiving long lap penalties for exceeding track limits. Tommy Bridewell was another finding the going tough in 14th on the Oxford Products Ducati.

With five laps to go, O’Halloran’s lead increased to a more comfortable 1.2s and he added another half second to this next time around whilst Jackson, aided by the fastest lap of the race, was up to fifth with Vickers overhauling Ray for sixth.

Lap 12 saw Iddon overhaul Hickman at the chicane for second and Irwin did the same on the next lap albeit opting for the outside line rather than the inside. Disaster then struck the Honda man as he crashed heavily at Seagrave on the penultimate lap and that brought out the red flag

O’Halloran was duly declared the winner by 2.4s from Iddon with Hickman again enjoying his visit to the Hampshire circuit in third. Vickers took a career-best fourth from Jackson with Mackenzie recovering well from his penalty to take sixth. However, Mackenzie got pushed back to ninth as he got a two second penalty - he took his long lap penalty on the lap the race was stopped so it didn't count hence the time being added post-race

Kent, Ray, Rea and Bridewell completed the top ten but Buchan was back in 13th and it was a disaster for Josh Brookes who could only manage 17th after qualifying down in 20th.

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