BSB Thruxton Race 3 Results | Mackenzie scrambles to beat Ray by 0.019s

Tarran Mackenzie strengthened his bid to secure a place in the 2022 BSB Title Showdown after edging out Bradley Ray and Jason O’Halloran in another pulsating encounter at Thruxton.

The follow up to arguably one of the greatest BSB races of the past decade in race two, while O’Halloran was then the winner for a second time this weekend by just 0.079secs, this time it was McAMS Yamaha team-mate Mackenzie reigning supreme by just 0.019secs.

Much like earlier, the action would steadily build towards the closing stages with the top three of Mackenzie - who got the holeshot to lead from Turn 1 - pole sitter Ray and O’Halloran, once he’d dispatched of a frisky Kyle Ryde on lap two, riding in formation for most of the race, seemingly to preserve some life within the tyres amid ongoing hot conditions.

Eventually the first attack would come from O’Halloran as he swept past Ray with another exquisite overtake at Church on Lap 12.

Nevertheless, Mackenzie remained steadfast out front as O’Halloran fended off the relentless response threat coming from Ray behind. However, while the OMG Yamaha rider did make a move stick for second place on Lap 17, O’Halloran struck straight back at Church to resume his attack on Mackenzie ahead.

With the Scot having led for the entire race up to this point, with just over two laps remaining O’Halloran nosed in front for the first time with a fine pass at Church.

However, once there it was the same high-speed right-hander that would prove O’Halloran’s undoing as a mid-corner wobble aboard the Yamaha on the penultimate lap pulled both Mackenzie and Ray right into his slipstream up to Club with the trio fanning out onto the back straight three-abreast at one stage

Remarkably, it was Ray who prevailed having scythed past both with the slipstream to come into the final lap with the lead.

By this stage, however, it was clear the riders’ attempt to preserve their tyres earlier was to no avail with all three Yamahas squirming as they put the power down out of the corners.

Of the trio, Ray appeared to be struggling most, duly running wide on the exit of Campbell. Nevertheless, he hauled the R1 back onto the apex for the quick following Cobb left-hander to retain the lead, baulking Mackenzie into O'Halloran's clutches as he attempted to dive beneath his team-mate at Seagrave.

However, the pair would instead make minor contact, with O'Halloran most affected as his squirrelling Yamaha forced the Australian out of his seat briefly.

Mackenzie, meanwhile, retained his momentum to set off in chase of Ray and wasted no time in getting back through on the sliding OMG Yamaha ahead to reclaim the lead before they'd reached Church.

Undeterred Ray remained in contact coming up to the final corner and after failing to get the job done on the brakes, instead focused on getting the better exit on the run to the line as O’Halloran did earlier.

However, despite getting some momentum on the run to the line, he'd just run out of time, Mackenzie staying just ahead less than two hundredths of a second.

A second win of the season for Mackenzie, this plus his brace of second place finishes from the first two races means he is now comfortably inside the BSB Title Showdown reckoning. He sits seventh in the standings, just 29 points behind Rory Skinner in fourth and 55 points clear of ninth.

Despite missing out on victory by a tiny margin yet again, Ray is at least now safely into the BSB Title Showdown with O’Halloran, who settled for third.

Behind them, Peter Hickman again ran with the front group for a time but an electrical problem with six laps remaining consigned him to the retirements’ list, doing substantial damage to his Title Showdown hopes. With two rounds and six races remaining before the cut-off point, Hickman 43 points off Tommy Bridewell.

His misfortune allowed Glenn Irwin into a strong fourth, the Honda man coming on strong during the latter stages having run as low as 13th early on.

Indeed, the fight for fifth - which would then become fourth - raged throughout the race, right down to 14th position.

After Irwin succeeded in fighting his way to the front, Lee Jackson slotted in behind him for a fifth place finish, ahead of fellow Kawasaki rider Leon Haslam, while Tommy Bridewell took a pivotal seventh place finish. The local man was again running on the fringes of the top 15 for much of the encounter, but saved his tyres long enough to ascend to seventh for a result boosted by Hickman’s DNF.

Andrew Irwin recovered to eighth place, ahead of Rory Skinner and Tom Sykes, who again battled inside the top five early on before fading. 

Christian Iddon was 11th, with Ryo Mizuno equalling his best ever result in BSB with 12th. Ryan Vickers, Takumi Takahashi and Danny Kent rounded out the points.

In addition to Hickman, Kyle Ryde crashed out of fifth position on Lap 7, while a struggling Josh Brookes is now almost certain to miss the Title Showdown for the first time in his career after a technical issue

2022 British Superbike Championship (BSB) | Thruxton | Race 3 Results