McAMS Yamaha Jason O’Halloran Leaves Oulton Park With The Championship Lead, Scoring Maximum Points.

For the final race of the weekend at Cheshire’s Oulton Park it was cloudy and overcast. FHO Racing BMW’s Peter Hickman was on pole position followed by Jason O’Halloran and RICH Energy OMG BMW’s Kyle Ryde in third.

As the lights went out it was McAMS Jason O’Halloran who got the holeshot with FHO Racing’s Peter Hickman in hot pursuit of the Australian. As the pack entered Cascades Josh Brookes ran wide forcing him to lose positions in the order, Powerslide/Catfoss Suzuki’s Bjorn Estment also had an incident at Cascades and crashed out. At the end of lap one it was VisionTrack Ducati’s Christian Iddon who was leading with O’Halloran shadowing the Ducati rider. RICH Energy OMG Racing BMW’s Brad Ray had to pull into the pits for the second time this weekend with a mechanical issue, Brad’s not had the best start to his season and will be hoping for better luck in the next round.

Kyle Ryde and Tarran Mackenzie were enjoying a battle for fourth place, Mackenzie has been more comfortable around Oulton Park this weekend as usually it’s one of his least favourite tracks. RAF regular And Reserves Kawasaki’s Ryan vickers was looking sharp in sixth place, by the fourth lap Ducati’s Tommy Bridewell put in the fastest lap whilst being in ninth place, so the Wiltshire man was pushing to get up to the front runners.

CDH Racing Kawasaki’s Josh Owens was having a good ride in 15th place, he has made a strong start to the season. By lap six Mackenzie had got the better of Kyle Ryde and was just on the back of the leading trio. Kyle was slipping down the order and was in ninth position by lap seven, the Nottinghamshire rider just didn’t seem to have the pace to keep up with front runners. Bridewell was on the move in fifth place, Josh Brookes was down in 10th place, the reigning champion didn’t manage to make any positions up after running wide at Cascades on lap one.

Danny Kent crashed out at Shell Oils on lap seven whilst in 13th position. Josh Owens suffered a mechanical problem and had to pull in at Hislops. Honda’s Glenn Irwin was in 12th place by lap nine, the Honda man hasn’t had the same lightening start to the season that he had in 2020. Mackenzie passed third place man Hickman at Hislops on lap 10, Bridewell also got the better of Hickman and got into fourth position. Peter Hickman has had an issue with arm pump during the weekend and it seemed to be affecting him in the race as his lap times were dropping.

On lap 16 Bridewell got the better of Mackenzie and took third position, Iddon was still leading the race with O’Halloran in second, Jason was hunting the Ducati for first position but was he going to leave the challenge for first place until the final lap again?

Brookes was finally on the charge and was in sixth position by lap 16, By the final lap the top four riders weren’t giving up on trying for the win, none of the top four were letting their pace slip away, Jason finally made his move on iddon at Island Bend and managed to pull a slight gap between them bringing his Yamaha YZF-R1 home in first place for the third time of the weekend!

Brookes finished in sixth place really not the start to the season the reigning champion would of wanted, FS-3 Kawasaki’s Lee Jackson finished in seventh place, SYNETIQ BMW’s Danny Buchan finished in eighth with Ryan Vickers in ninth and Glenn Irwin rounding out the top ten.

As the Bennetts British Superbikes head to the Scottish circuit of Knockhill, can any of the Superbike riders put a halt on Jason O’Halloran’s winning streak? Round Two is on 10/11 July.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Oulton Park, Race 3 result:

1.     Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha)
2.     Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) +0.569s
3.     Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +0.781s
4.     Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +1.025s
5.     Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +6.949s
6.     Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) +10.024s
7.     Lee Jackson (FS-3 Kawasaki) +10.182s
8.     Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) +10.715s
9.     Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) +13.054s
10.  Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing) +18.366s

Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings after Oulton Park:

1.     Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 75
2.     Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) 60
3.     Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) 40
4.     Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 34
5.     Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 32
6.     Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW) 25
7.     Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) 25
8.     Lee Jackson (FS-3 Kawasaki) 25

Featured Images. Yamaha Racing, VisionTrack Ducati, Oxford Products Racing Ducati, Grid Motorsport Media (all credits to original photographers).