McAMS Yamaha to the fore as O’Halloran leads Mackenzie

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Jason O’Halloran set a blistering pace at the end of second free practice for the opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Silverstone, with the Australian heading up a McAMS Yamaha 1-2 from Tarran Mackenzie.

Making his debut as a Yamaha rider this weekend after several seasons competing in BSB on Honda machinery, O’Halloran demonstrated impressive pace throughout the session by first setting a benchmark of 54.092secs, before lowering it to 54.072secs with ten minutes remaining. 

Whilst that lap alone would have been good enough to stave off a flurry of fast rival efforts in the closing stages, a superb concluding turn of 53.775s put him a full three tenths clear of the chasing pack on his R1.

Team-mate Mackenzie consolidated McAMS Yamaha’s eye-catching performance by completing a 1-2 result, with Luke Mossey proving OMG Suzuki’s pace from FP1 in the hands of Josh Elliot was no fluke by slotting into third best.

FP1 pace setter Josh Brookes slipped to fourth on the new Be Wiser Ducati V4, while Christian Iddon made it four manufacturers inside the top five as he gave the latest generation BMW S1000RR an encouraging competitive debut in fifth.

Santander Salt TAG Yamaha’s Dan Linfoot followed up in sixth position, ahead of BSB newcomer Scott Redding on the second of the Be Wiser Ducatis, while fellow ex-MotoGP rider Claudio Corti produced a strong effort on the WD-40 Kawasaki to end FP2 in eighth as the top ZX-10R rider.

Elliot and Tyco BMW’s Keith Farmer completed the top ten, with Andew Irwin the highest-placed Honda rider in 11^th, well up on ex-WSBK rider Xavi Fores in 19^th.

Others struggling to shine in the Silverstone sun included Bradley Ray – a double winner at the Donington BSB season opener twelve months ago – with the Buildbase Suzuki rider down in 23^rd, while fellow 2018 Showdown contenders Glenn Irwin (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) and Peter Hickman (Smiths BMW) ended the day in 14^th and 18^th respectively. 

Tommy Bridewell suffered a fall from his Oxford Racing Ducati en route to 16^th best, but was unharmed.