2022 British Superbikes, Thruxton - Race Results (1)

Jason O’Halloran continued his winning streak at Thruxton, after a late break as his main rivals battled each other in the Sprint Race on Saturday, round six of the championship.

The McAMS Yamaha rider lead home a team 1-2 and an all Yamaha top three as the manufacturer continued to dominate.

Though the Australian started on pole, the race started with Glenn Irwin vying for the lead, with O’Halloran aware that his best chance to win was to be in front. 

After swapping position over the opening laps,  the championship leader made a move stick and looked to pull out a small lead. Irwin faded and Peter Hickman, who was now second, struggled to match him for pace.

 An immediate response came from both Bradley Ray and his McAMS team-mate Tarran Mackenzie, who saw the chance to win vanishing up the track.

The duo reeled him back in, but with podium points up for grabs, their in-fighting for second allowed ‘The O Show' to pull away again and continue his victorious streak at Thruxton after a triple win at the track in 2021.

It brings up O’Halloran’s 60th podium finish, while his sixth win of the season is also his 21st in British Superbikes.

Behind a photo finish was needed to split Mackenzie and Ray as their battle went all the way to the finish. Just 0.003s separated the pair, with defending champion Mackenzie just ahead for yet another McAMS 1-2, continuing where the team left of in Brands Hatch.

Rich Energy OMG Yamaha’s Ray was clear in third for the final podium spot.

Honda’s Irwin got back in front of Hickman late on and pulled out his own small gap for a solid fourth.

Hickman said ahead of the race that he didn’t feel he had the pace to race the Yamaha’s out front, which proved correct as he finished just over half a second later in fifth for FHO Racing BMW, the top finisher for the manufacturer.

Lee Jackson was next to see the chequerd flag in sixth as top Kawasaki for Cheshire Mouldings FS-3, a position he held throughout the race.

Rory Skinner got back into his BSB groove after a wildcard stint in Moto2 at Silverstone last weekend and climbed to seventh from eleventh on the grid, though the Scottish rider couldn’t quite catch up to Jackson.

Leon Haslam took eighth for VisionTrack Kawasaki, only just keeping ahead of Tom Sykes who pushed him all the way to the line as top Ducati in the race for MCE.

Tommy Bridewell picked up five places in the race to complete the top ten on the Oxford Products Ducati. 

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Ryan Vickers also made moves to finish eleventh after dropping back from his twelfth place grid start initially for FHO Racing BMW with Attis Sports.

Christian Iddon (Buildbase Suzuki) spent much of his time on track battling with Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Yamaha) after he slipped back into his clutches, to take twelfth.

Danny Buchan’s season continued it’s slide with a 14th place finish for SYNETIQ BMW Mottorad, with the final point on offer collected by Ryo Mizuno in 15th for Honda.

BSB Thruxton Lap Record - Josh Brookes - Ducati - 1m 14.655s (2019)

Thruxton Qualifying front row:
Pole : Jason O’Halloran
Second: Peter Hickman
Third: Andrew Irwin

2021 at Thruxton

Race One (Sprint): Jason O’Halloran
Race Two: Jason O’Halloran
Race Three: Jason O’Halloran

Round Six Results (Brands Hatch)

Race One (Sprint):Jason O’Halloran
Race Two: Tarran Mackenzie
Race Three: Tarran Mackenzie

Disaster for front row starter Andrew Irwin.

Earlier in the day, Andrew Irwin had dug deep to come through Q1 and finish Q2 third for a front row start despite feeling unwell.

The SNYETIQ BMW Motorrad rider had been sat at the top of the Q1 standings when his lap was cancelled, leading to frustration and a return to track, where he once again lead the timesheets after an angry, aggressive lap to move into Q2 with the best time.

He continued that momentum to finish that session third for a front row start. All his hard work was undone by a technical error on his bike at the start of the warm-up lap. Frantically turning the bike on and of to attempt a reset did nothing and he was disappointingly wheeled away from the grid.

Moto2 world champion Rabat finishes 26th.

British Superbikes has world champions up and down the race results, such is the competitive nature of the championship, and previous pedigree means little on race day as Tito Rabat found out as he was the final finisher  in the sprint race at Thruxton.

Learning all the way the former Moto2 champion ginished just over 46 seconds after O’Halloran and enjoyed a battle with Josh Brookes before he picked up some late positions to rise to 20th.  

Brookes himself was not looking forward to Thruxton after a hard time at the track last season, returning with the same bike underneath him.

An early crash for Luke Mossey and Chrissy Rouse saw them both hobble away looking second best and caused a gap early on in the pack.

Danny Kent and James East both also failed to finish.