Luckless O’Halloran shows pace but leaves Silverstone empty-handed

Jason O’Halloran was in a philosophical mood following the opening round of the 2019 Bennetts British Superbike Championship after a double DNF left him cruelly unrewarded on his otherwise eye-catching McAMS Yamaha debut at Silverstone.

Switching to the Steve Rodgers-helmed team this year after several seasons competing on Honda machinery in BSB, O’Halloran has quickly acquainted himself with the Yamaha R1 to produce pace-setting times in testing and into the Silverstone opener.

Despite missing out on pole position to his team-mate Tarran Mackenzie, O’Halloran got the better start in race one to take a lead he looked set to control to the chequered flag. However, his hopes of a first win since 2016 was scuppered when Mackenzie attempted an ill-fated pass at Luffield, with the pair making contact to send the Australian down and out of the race just metres from the chequered flag.

Eager to bounce back in race two, O’Halloran’s race lasted just three laps when technical gremlins consigned him to a second DNF of the day

Nonetheless, despite leaving Silverstone with a ‘zero score’ unrepresentative of his strong pace throughout the weekend, a sanguine O’Halloran says he has plenty of positives to focus on regardless.

“That’s bike racing,” he said. “We had a really strong weekend and worked hard all through practice, qualified on the front row of the grid and then got to the front in race one and led 29 and three-quarter laps.

“I felt really comfortable on the bike so fair play to the guys. I’ve never felt so comfortable and in control of a race, but unfortunately we had the coming together at the final corner.

“In race two, the bike felt slow from the start but I was still coming back through when we had the issue. Oulton Park will be round one for me, we need to forget this weekend and focus on the positives. In my whole career I have never had so much pace, or so much control on a bike so I’m looking forward to the year ahead.”