Jason O’Halloran made it two wins from two in the British Superbike Championship at Thruxton on Sunday afternoon, with a masterful performance in the second race of the weekend.

The McAMS Yamaha rider fought his way through the pack from ninth to defeat Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) by just over a second with Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing again on the podium in third.

Kyle Ryde got the holeshot from Nesbitt and LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha team-mate Ryan Vickers and whilst the front two remained the same as they completed the opening lap, Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad) was up to third with Vickers, Max Cook on the second Kawasaki and Danny Kent (Lovell Kent Racing Honda) in hot pursuit in fourth to sixth.

Ryde continued to lead second time around but Cook jumped up to second and took over the lead on lap three, the youngster now leading from Nesbitt, Vickers, Haslam and Storm Stacey (Starline Racing Kawasaki). The BeerMonster Ducati pairing of Glenn Irwin and Tommy Bridewell continued to struggle though in tenth and 16^th respectively with Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW) even further back in 19^th.

The lead changed hands once more on lap four with Ryde regaining the lead and the front five had opened up a second lead over the rest of the field which was now led by Jackson. Saturday’s race winner O’Halloran was in eighth having moved ahead of Kent.

Nesbitt hit the front for the first time on lap six and it was Cook now in second closely followed by Ryde, Vickers, Haslam and Jackson. Just two seconds covered the leading 10 riders with Irwin trying to bridge the gap from 11^th. Bridewell had moved up to 14^th.

Two laps later, Ryde had regained the lead and it was now his team-mate Vickers in second from Nesbitt, Cook, Jackson and Stacey although positions were changing all the time with Vickers taking over the lead on lap nine.

On the tenth lap, half race distance, the running order was Vickers, Ryde, Nesbitt, Jackson, Cook and Stacey with the leading pack now comprising seven riders as O’Halloran ran a second further back in eighth.

However, the Australian had bridged the gap a lap later to bring himself back into contention and at three-quarters race distance, 15 laps, it looked like the race would be fought between seven riders – Vickers, Ryde, Cook, Jackson, Nesbitt. O’Halloran and Kent. Jack Kennedy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha), Haslam and Stacey completed the top ten with 2.3s covering the ten riders.

However, Nesbitt ran wide at the chicane and as he filtered back in, Cook was forced onto the kerb and highsided out of the action, fortunately without injury. That split the pack and with four laps to go, the leading pack comprised four riders of Jackson, Vickers, Ryde and O’Halloran although Nesbitt and Kennedy were back with them a lap later!

O’Halloran took the lead from Jackson with two laps to go and going into the final lap, they were almost 1.5s clear of the four-way scrap for third and whilst O’Halloran judged the race to perfection to defeat Jackson by 1.1s, Nesbitt prevailed in the battle for third from Vickers, Kennedy and Ryde who was hit with a long lap time penalty on the final lap.

Haslam, Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW), Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) and Kent rounded out the top ten as Irwin and Bridewell finished down the order once more in 13^th and 14^th with Brookes running on at the chicane on the final lap, ending up 17^th.