Jason O’Halloran Ends The Day On A High After A Successful Day Of Testing At Cheshire’s Oulton Park.

For the third testing schedule for the Bennetts British Superbikes saw the Superbike class and supporting classes head to Cheshire’s Oulton Park, a circuit which is a favourite for many of the riders. The weather was a big improvement compared to the previous test at Snetterton and for the first time since the 2019 season a limited number of fans were allowed track side to watch the day’s proceedings.

The first session of the morning got under-way with reigning British Superbike champion VisionTrack Ducati’s Josh Brookes leading the way for the first six laps until the session was red flagged due to Honda’s Takumi Takahashi crashing on his second lap at turn 15. The session resumed with Oxford Racing Ducati’s Tommy Bridewell leading the way with FHO Racing’s Peter Hickman just 0.088s behind in second place, until McAMS Yamaha’s Jason O’Halloran snatched second place. On his 12th lap VisionTrack Ducati’s Christian Iddon knocked fellow Ducati man Bridewell off the top spot.

RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki rider Ryan Vickers was having a good session getting up-to fifth place after completing 13 laps, McAMS Yamaha’s Tarran Mackenzie wasn’t having a good session as he was down in 27th place for most of the session and didn’t do much time out on the track. With eight minutes left to go RICH Energy OMG’s Kyle Ryde placed his BMW on the top spot whilst his team-mate Brad Ray was hovering around 15th place. Jason O’Halloran claimed first place from Kyle Ryde with three minutes remaining in the session, Josh Brookes put a flyer of a lap in with seconds remaining and ended the session on top of the timing sheets with BMW’s Kyle Ryde 0.098s behind the current champion in second place, O’Halloran had to settle for third place. Ducati men Iddon and Bridewell finished in fifth and sixth place respectively. Honda Racing’s Glenn Irwin finished in ninth place just in front of his brother SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad’s Andrew Irwin.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Oulton Park, Official Test, Session 1:

1. Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) 1m35.347s
2. Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +0.098s
3. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.226s
4. Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +0.488s
5. Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +0.825s
6. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +1.119s
7. Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) +1.363s
8. Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +1.378s
9. Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +1.383s
10. Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +1.850s

The second session of the day started with all three of the Ducati’s at the sharp end, until Kawasaki man Ryan Vickers topped the time sheet. Buildbase Hawk Suzuki’s Danny Kent got inside the top ten early on in eighth place, with SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad’s Danny Buchan just behind in ninth place. After nine laps in it was McAM’S Jason O’Halloran who knocked the Ducati of Christian Iddon off the top spot with Kyle Ryde jumping in to second place, pushing Iddon back to third place. As the session hit the half way mark it was BMW’s Danny Buchan in first place with his team-mate Andrew Irwin in fourth position.

FHO Racing BMW’s Peter Hickman was 0.340s behind fellow BMW rider Buchan in second place, with Jason O’Halloran pressing forward in third place, Jason’s team-mate Tarran Mackenzie was still off the pace down in 13th place. With six minutes to go Kawasaki’s Ryan Vickers put his ZX-10RR in first position, Christian Iddon was down in eighth place when he suffered a mechanical problem at Turn two. RICH Energy OMG Racing’s Kyle Ryde pushed on his last lap but it wasn’t enough to knock RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki’s Ryan Vickers off the top spot! Kyle remained in second place with McAM’S Jason O’Halloran in third, Josh Brookes only managed a seventh place finish with his team-mate Iddon behind him in eighth place. Buildbase Hawk Suzuki’s Gino Rea rounded off the top ten in tenth place.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Oulton Park, Official Test, Session 2:

1. Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) 1m:35.000s
2. Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing BMW) +0.062s
3. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +0.250s
4. Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +0.315s
5. Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +0.520s
6. Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +0.548s
7. Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +0.696s
8. Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +0.709s
9. Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +0.818s
10. Gino Rea (Buildbase Suzuki) +0.898s

It was Kyle Ryde who lead the way at the beginning of the final session of the day until unfortunately he crashed at Turn four and had to be taken to the medical centre. When the session was re-started it was BMW’s Danny Buchan who took the top spot. RICH Energy OMG Racing’s Brad ray got into the top ten for the first time of the day until he was knocked back out of it by FHO Racing BMW’s Xavi Forés. Peter Hickman was showing good pace again as he was in second place just 0.127s behind Buchan. With 25 minutes left to go Josh Brookes took the first place position from Buchan.

Josh held on to the top spot until his main 2020 rival Jason O’Halloran claimed the first place position with just 0.127s between them, Josh’s team-mate Christian Iddon was off the space down in 15th place as was McAMS Yamaha’s Tarran Mackenzie who was in 17th place. With five minutes left Ryan Vickers put in another fast lap to go to the top again, but it was short lived as O’Halloran stormed back to the number one spot, followed by Tommy Bridewell who went into second place pushing Vickers to third place, and that’s how the session ended with McAMS Yamaha’s Jason O’Halloran putting in the fastest lap time of the day, with a time of 1:34.581. Brookes ended the session in fifth place just behind Peter Hickman.

Combined Time standings For The Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Oulton Park, Official Test:

1. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 1m:34.581
2. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing Ducati) +0.037s
3. Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserves Kawasaki) +0.127s
4. Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +0.273s
5. Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +0.343s
6. Gino Rea (Buildbase Hawk Suzuki) +0.456
7. Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +0.461
8. Kyle Ryde (RICH Energy OMG Racing) +0.481
9. Brad Ray (RICH Energy OMG Racing) +0.553s
10. Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW Motorrad) +0.558s

For the final thrilling instalment of Bennetts British Superbike Testing, the riders and teams head to the Derbyshire Circuit of Donington Park National which is scheduled for Tuesday June 8th. Count down has officially started to the 2021 season opener at Oulton Park 25-27 June!

Featured Images: Bennetts British Superbikes, Double Red Photographic, Grid Motorsport Media.