O’Halloran moves within one point of Iddon after Thruxton victory
Jason O’Halloran put in another dominant display to take his fifth Bennetts British Superbike win of the season after leading every lap of race one at Thruxton.
Having claimed pole position earlier on in the day by over four tenths, O’Halloran gradually built up his lead throughout the race, while Christian Iddon joined Glenn Irwin and Peter Hickman in the podium battle.
With five laps gone, FHO Racing BMW rider Hickman moved into second ahead of Irwin who was swiftly pushed back another place as Iddon then made his move. Iddon got through on Hickman shortly after but was unable to do anything about O’Halloran’s two second lead.
After spending a few laps behind the BMW rider, Irwin then made his move into third on lap 13, however, a crash for the Northern Irishman as he closed in on the Visiontrack Ducati rider saw red flags being waved with one lap to go, as his stricken Honda Fireblade was stranded in the middle of the circuit.
It means Hickman was elevated to third, while Ryan Vickers took his best result in BSB with fourth.
The win sees O’Halloran move within a single point of iddon ahead of Sunday’s double header, while Tarran Mackenzie and Danny Buchan both lost important championship points due to long-lap penalties.
Mackenzie eventually finished ninth, while Buchan could only manage three points in 13th.
Heading into race two, It’s Friday’s fastest rider Lee Jackson who will start on pole thanks to his fastest lap in race one. O’Halloran will start second on the grid with Iddon third.
Speaking after his victory, O’Halloran said the pace ‘just came to me’, but didn’t anticipate the race being as fast as it was due to the ‘unknown’ factor of not having set a representative long run.
"Normally throughout practice you will have done a long run. I did one this morning, but it was straight out of the pits and it was the first bit of dry track time all weekend, so it was a bit of an unknown," added O’Halloran.
"The pace was definitely faster than what I thought it would be, not from trying to do that, but it just came to me and I thought while the pace is there and the tyre feels good, I’ll just keep doing my thing.
"The gap to the guys behind me was staying constant for about the first five or six laps and I saw it start to grow, so I just wanted to keep my pace and try to get away.
"It was a comfortable win, but it certainly was never easy. I didn’t have to block too much, didn’t have to worry about the guys behind me, which is a nice feeling.
"I think tomorrow’s race might be a bit slower, another five or six laps is a lot around here when the tyre starts to drop, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. All the guys will improve again and so we need to do the same for tomorrow."
