Jason O’Halloran put in another imperious ride at Thruxton on Sunday with the McAMS Yamaha rider taking his sixth Bennetts British Superbike Championship victory of the season.
The Australian came home almost four seconds clear of team-mate Tarran Mackenzie and Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) and, in doing so, reclaimed the title lead after Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) crashed out at the Complex after being collected by Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki).
There was also heartache for Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) as he crashed out of second on the final lap.
With earlier rain having passed through, O’Halloran grabbed the holeshot and, after a slight tussle with Irwin, it was he who led at the end of the opening lap with Jackson in third ahead of Iddon, Vickers and Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW).
Second time around and the leading two had already opened up a second-lead over Jackson but Vickers ran wide at the chicane on lap three and had to take to the escape road with Iddon having to take evasive action.
The RAF man regained fourth a lap later but he had no less than five riders breathing down his neck with Iddon, Hickman, Mackenzie, Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) and Danny Buchan (Synetiq BMW) in hot pursuit.
However, he was, at the time, the fastest man on the track and moved by Jackson at the chicane on the fifth lap but O’Halloran and Irwin were continuing to edge away, the gap from first to third now two seconds.
O’Halloran held an advantage of 0.4s over Irwin at the end of lap seven when the timing screens flashed a long lap penalty for Vickers due to his earlier indiscretion at the chicane.
He duly took the long lap on the next lap, rejoining in sixth just ahead of Ray, Hickman and Buchan. Iddon was now up to third from Jackson and Mackenzie.
Drama unfolded on the tenth lap though when Jackson crashed at Campbell and he took Iddon down with him, the latter being pinned under his Ducati as he slid along the track.
Once the dust had settled, O’Halloran’s lead over Irwin was up to 1.5s and it was now Mackenzie in third from Vickers, Ray, Hickman and Buchan. There was then a gap of almost three seconds to Tommy Bridewell on the Oxford Products Ducati.
However, on lap 12, Irwin halved the deficit to O’Halloran to 0.815s and Vickers moved back in front of Mackenzie with Ray following him past the Yamaha rider a lap later.
The lead crept back above a second on the 14th of the 20 laps and this had moved further out next time around to 1.7s and Irwin’s immediate focus now was on the group behind, still headed by Vickers, as they’d closed to within a couple of tenths.
Just like Saturday’s race, O’Halloran had the race under control with another master class of riding and he came home a comfortable winner, his eventual winning margin an impressive 3.5s.
