With another sublime performance, Jason O’Halloran won the third and final British Superbike Championship race of the weekend at Thruxton on Sunday afternoon to complete his hat-trick.

The McAMS Yamaha rider working his way through the pack to get the better of Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) and Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing) once more.

Championship leader Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati) had a disappointing race again though and could only manage 15^th, two places behind team-mate Glenn Irwin, and O’Halloran has now closed to within 50.5pts of the title lead.

It was youngster Max Cook who got the holeshot on the second Kawasaki and he led the field round on the opening lap followed by Kyle Ryde (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha), Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad), Ryan Vickers on the second OMG machine, Danny Kent (Lovell Kent Racing Honda) and Nesbitt, the front two having opened a half second gap over the rest of the field. Winner of the previous two races, O’ Halloran, ran in tenth.

The order remained the same the next time around with championship leader Bridewell up to 12^th and whilst Cook continued to lead on lap three, there were changes further back with Nesbitt and Jackson moving up to fifth and sixth respectively as Kent slipped back to seventh.

Impressive rookie Cook was looking assured in the lead but the pack behind were all bunching up once more and a quarter of a way through the race the first six read Cook, Ryde, Vickers, Haslam, Nesbitt and Jackson. O’Halloran remained in ninth with Bridewell, Irwin and Josh Brookes in 12^th, 15^th and 16^th although the latter dropped back further to 18^th next time around.

Cook finally relinquished the lead on lap seven, Vickers taking over at the front with the leading pack consisting of seven riders, O’Halloran a second behind in eighth. Brookes’ nightmare weekend ended a lap later as he pulled into the pits on the FHO Racing BMW.

By lap ten, half race distance, the leading six was Vickers, Cook, Ryde, Nesbitt, Jackson and Kent, the gap between them only a second but O’Halloran was now up to seventh and looking to close the gap as he had done earlier in the day.

Vickers and Cook pulled three quarters of a second clear on lap 12 with Nesbitt moving ahead of Ryde only for the Yamaha man to reclaim it at the chicane. Just behind, Kent had overtaken Jackson and although O’Halloran still ran in seventh, he was now 2.2s adrift of the pace setting Vickers.

However, heading into the final five laps, the pack had come together once more with just 1.3s covering the leading seven riders which now consisted of Vickers, Cook, Nesbitt, Ryde, Jackson, O’Halloran and Kent.

With three laps to go, Vickers still led but it was now Nesbitt and Jackson directly behind him and O’Halloran was up to fourth and that became third as they started the penultimate lap, any one of the leading five riders still in with a chance of victory.

O’Halloran hit the front for the first time at the chicane just before they started the final lap and with another masterful ride, he duly completed his hat-trick, 0.213s ahead of Jackson with Nesbitt again completing the podium in third.

Cook completed his brilliant weekend in fourth ahead of Vickers and with Kent and Jack Kennedy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha) crashing out on the final lap, it was Haslam, Ryde, Storm Stacey (Starline Racing Kawasaki), Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) and Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati) who completed the top ten. Irwin and Bridewell finished 13^th and 15^th.