Fortunes change on Sunday in BSB as points leaders struggle for pace

2023 British Superbike Championship
Round Seven – Thruxton

Images by David Yeomans Photography

Jason O’Halloran cleverly bided his time on Saturday to pull off a calculated come from behind victory. He then did exactly the same on Sunday to make it a triple treat for the Aussie to firmly throw his hat back in the ring for the championship win.

The Ducati pairing of Tommy Bridewell and Glenn Irwin still have a decent lead in the championship but they, along with Josh Brookes, really struggled with the harder Pirelli control tyre nominated for this round.

O’Halloran’s mastery of the low grip conditions on the McAMS Yamaha saw him jump from sixth place, and over 100-points behind championship leader Bridewell before Thruxton, to now head to Cadwell Park late this month 50-points behind Bridwell, and 25-points behind Irwin.

Jason O’Halloran’s tally of 25 victories onboard the YZF-R1 saw the 35-year-old eclipse triple champion Niall Mackenzie to become Yamaha’s most successful race winner in British Superbike Championship history.

This round was also the scene of some rookie breakthroughs with 20-year-old Max Cook and 22-year-old Charlie Nesbitt running at the front of the pack at times, with the latter of the pair finishing on the rostrum in all three contests.

Superbike Race Two

Jason O’Halloran carved his way through the Bennetts British Superbike Championship pack in race two to claim his second win at Thruxton, coming from tenth at the end of lap one to snatch the lead in the closing stages to hold off Lee Jackson who took Kawasaki’s first podium of the season for Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki.

O’Halloran had started seventh on the grid, but at the end of the opening lap, he was down to tenth and then had to work his way back through the pack. It wasn’t until the final five laps when he had moved into fourth and then he was battling for the lead with Jackson with three laps to go.

After trading positions, the Australian was able to make a break on the final two laps to maintain his impressive winning form at Thruxton, celebrating his seventh win in eight races at the Hampshire circuit and his 25th in Bennetts BSB.

Jackson meanwhile had fought his way through to second after an intense battle that featured no less than eight riders throughout the 20-lap contest. The Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki rider had the edge over the fight for third to celebrate the first Team Green podium of the season, but it was disappointment for rookie Cook. The local contender was embroiled in the tussle in the leading group, but on lap 14 it got congested into the Chicane and he ended up on the kerb and consequently crashed out unhurt.

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The pack continued to shuffle with the lead group constantly changing positions and it was a traditional Thruxton dogfight until the finish, with nothing separating the top eight contenders.

Rookie Charlie Nesbitt continued his impressive performance this weekend to return to the podium holding off Ryan Vickers on the leading LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha who had been one of six different riders to lead the pack during the race.

Jack Kennedy moved through the order to finish inside the top five again, finishing ahead of Kyle Ryde and Leon Haslam on the leading BMW, narrowly ahead of Peter Hickman who completed the top eight.

Christian Iddon was the top Ducati contender in ninth place for the Oxford Products Racing Ducati with Danny Kent completing the top ten for the Lovell Kent Racing Honda team. Championship leader Tommy Bridewell was 14th on the BeerMonster Ducati.

Superbike Race Two Results

Superbike Race Three

O’Halloran once again had to fight his way through to the front; ending the opening lap in tenth position, losing a place from his ninth place grid position. The O’Show once again though delivered a calculated performance to work his way through the pack, keeping his calm to move up the order. At mid-race distance, he was seventh and it wasn’t until the closing laps that he made his final charge.

O’Halloran moved from fourth to second on lap 18 of 20 with a decisive move on Charlie Nesbitt and Lee Jackson. The Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki rider though fought back to regain the lead, but on the penultimate lap, the McAMS Yamaha emerged ahead and then held off the counter challenge to take the triple win.

The treble victory has launched O’Halloran from sixth in the standings before round seven, up to third ahead of Cadwell Park on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Jackson and rookie Nesbitt returned to the podium for the second time today as Max Cook celebrated equaling his strongest result in his first Bennetts BSB season with another fourth place.

Vickers was the leading LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha in fifth place ahead of Leon Haslam on the leading BMW, who split the teammates with Kyle Ryde taking the chequered flag in seventh.

Storm Stacey had another consistent performance for Starline Racing Kawasaki in eighth with Peter Hickman and Christian Iddon completing the top ten.

Championship leader Tommy Bridewell was 15th, in his worst finish of the season but the BeerMonster Ducati rider still maintains his advantage at the top of the standings, however it has been reduced to 26.5 points over team-mate Glenn Irwin.

Superbike Race Three Results

BSB Rider Quotes

Jason O’Halloran

“That’s the best weekend of my career, coming off the back of a couple of average rounds to bounce back like this is exactly what we needed. We’ve clawed a lot of points back this weekend with pole position and three race wins which is incredible. I’m now Yamaha’s most successful rider in terms of race wins and have 26 BSB wins which is just incredible. And I’ve won eight of the last nine races at Thruxton which is another amazing stat! This is exactly what the team needed and I think we can carry this momentum forward now to Cadwell Park which is my favourite race of the year.”

Tommy Bridewell

“I’m slightly lost for words to be honest, and these days make the good Tommy Bridewellones even sweeter! None of us expected this and as a team we’ve struggled this weekend, but we win as a team and lose as a team, so we’ll take it on the chin and move on. If Glenn had been winning, I’d have been scratching my head, but he was only one or two places ahead of me with the other Ducati rider in the same ballpark so it’s clear the track just doesn’t suit us. I’ve lost a few points to Glenn whilst Jason has been phenomenal but the next four circuits are all good for us, so we’ll come out swinging and get back to winning ways.”

Glenn Irwin

“I’ve been working on things a lot this season and focusing on my mindset which really helps and whilst the results aren’t the best, from a championship perspective I’ve closed the gap to Tommy, and if you’d given me that at the beginning of the weekend, I’d have taken it. Hats off to Jason, he rode phenomenally well but we knew he’d be strong here as were some others. Fighting for two or three points in each race is far from ideal but the bike simply doesn’t work here. That’s just a fact and no criticism of anyone or anything so we’ll put it behind us and move on. I’ve enjoyed all the races and am content with my riding and the effort we all put in so with four strong tracks coming up, we’ll be back up front next time out.”

Josh Brookes

“I can’t really explain what’s happened this weekend as I don’t really know. Obviously we would expect far better than the results this weekend, there’s no way that would be a result we could even imagine to expect to have. From the very first session of the weekend the BMW wasn’t performing to the level that it needs to, in order to be competitive and I could feel that straight away. These things happen sometimes, and we work through processes and adjust the bike accordingly and make it work again, but it really didn’t improve at all. We made some small steps but nothing that would have put us in a position to be competitive, Pete’s made an improvement in some areas, but where he’s struggled this weekend doesn’t seem to be what we’re struggling with. He seems to have more issues with drive grip up off the edge and I have issues with the edge before it gets up into the drive position. We’ve got different problems but we’re both suffering with the lack of grip. We’ve all tried as much as we could this weekend and the team have worked hard to try and work a solution but for whatever reason, whether it’s the harder tyre, chassis, engine, or even the rider we weren’t able to work out a fix.”

Peter Hickman

“Coming into Thruxton I was super excited to get here, it’s one of the best tracks in the country for myself, a track I’ve always gone well at. Right from a kid actually the first time I ever raced here I broke the lap record, so it’s been a good circuit for me throughout my career and I was looking forward to getting here, especially off the back of a few bad rounds. Brands was a lot closer for us, so I was hoping to build on that and in some respects, we have done that scoring an eighth, ninth and 10th. It’s not the end of the world, it’s not where we would have liked to have finished but it’s solid enough, but we need to and should be in the top-ten all the time. The bike has been a bit of hard work and Josh has struggled a bit more than I have this weekend, which is probably the first time this year it’s been that way round. I don’t know if it’s that my size helps a bit more round here, it’s probably the only circuit where my size does help and doesn’t hinder me as I can get hold of the bike and manhandle it a bit. There’s not so much stop, start and it means I can carry the corner speed and I don’t miss out due to my size. Overall, I’m content enough, it would have been nice to have been a lot closer, but even in the last race with one lap to go I was only three seconds off the win, so actually we were not that far off in the end. The team have worked super hard over the weekend, so thanks to them, hopefully we can turn things round for the next one at Cadwell.”

British Superbike Championship Points

The next round of the BSB series takes place at Cadwell Park, August 26-28