British Superbike STK/SS/Junior STK Saturday round up from Thruxton

2023 British Superbike Championship
Round Seven – Thruxton
Saturday

Images by David Yeomans Photography

Superbike Qualifying

Jason O’Halloran claimed his second pole positions of the season despite the LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha riders closing in, he was able to maintain the top spot by 0.284s with Ryan Vickers and Kyle Ryde made it an all Yamaha front row.

Lee Jackson will head the second row for the Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki team as he held off MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing’s Charlie Nesbitt and another impressive performance from rookie Max Cook.

Storm Stacey will head the third row ahead of the leading BeerMonster Ducati of Glenn Irwin and Jack Kennedy with Leon Haslam completing the top ten qualifiers.

Due to the challenging nature of Thruxton, the designated rear dry tyre for the Superbike class is a harder compound Pirelli SCD tyre (full Pirelli designation A1126), as used by World Superbike at Most recently.

Some of the regular front runners, such as Bridewell and Brookes have not been able to get the best out of the new rubber.  Championship leader Tommy Bridewell would start 15th on the grid for the opening Bennetts BSB race of the weekend after a challenging eBay Qualifying session.  Josh Brookes was even further down the grid, starting from 21st and really struggling for grip.

Superbike Qualifying Results

Superbike Race One

Jason O’Halloran celebrated his second victory of the season in the Saturday Sprint Race at Thruxton with the McAMS Yamaha rider delivering a winning performance as rookie Charlie Nesbitt celebrated an incredible debut podium finish for MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing.

O’Halloran hit the front from pole early, but Lee Jackson briefly took the lead on lap five, but the ‘O’Show’ retaliated to regain the position a lap later.

The Australian was then at the head of the pack but it wasn’t until the closing laps when he was able to break away from the freight train of riders lining up in the podium battle at the Hampshire circuit.

The pack in the battle for the final podium positions comprised four riders as the rookies were embroiled in the tussle with Charlie Nesbitt and Max Cook taking on Ryan Vickers and Lee Jackson.

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On the final lap, Vickers and Jackson were trading blows into the chicane for the final time, but the pair gave Nesbitt the opportunity he needed and he outdragged them to the chequered flag to take his first Bennetts BSB podium finish, becoming the tenth rider this season to celebrate a top three result. The first of the season for the MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing as they held off Vickers to the line by 0.111s.

Vickers only narrowly claimed third; 0.013s ahead of Cook on the Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki with Jackson completing the top five in an intense opening race at Thruxton.

Leon Haslam worked his way through to finish sixth for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad Team as he held off Danny Kent and Kyle Ryde, who had earlier been involved in the battle for the podium on the second LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha.

Glenn Irwin was the leading Ducati in ninth ahead of Peter Hickman who completed the top ten.

It was the worst result of the season so far for championship leader Tommy Bridewell who crossed the line in 14th just ahead of Josh Brookes, however the Beer Monster Ducati rider still holds the advantage in the standings ahead of tomorrow’s two races. Neither Bridewell or Brookes getting on with the control tyre for this round.

Superbike Race One Results

Jason O’Halloran

“We knew from yesterday we had good pace, we spent a lot of time doing long runs and I was pretty confident ahead of the race that I knew what pace I wanted to do. I ended up at the front early on and controlled the pace, in the middle part of the race there wasn’t much of a gap behind me so I let Lee go to the front so I could see what he could do, I figured out pretty much straight away that I wanted to be back in front so I overtook him and controlled it over the last few laps and managed to built a bit of a gap. It’s been the first weekend we’ve had a really smooth weekend, when you start your weekend on the front foot you can build your momentum and focus on strategy for the races. I think the whole team needed that today, we didn’t have a bad Brands Hatch with a top five but we want to win races. We’ve done a lot of work between the two rounds and come here with a better package and I feel like we all deserve that.”

Glenn Irwin

“I knew it would be tough this weekend, for a number of reasons, but whilst we have good drive, we’ve hardly any edge grip and that’s hurting us as you’re on the edge of the tyre so much here at Thruxton. The positives are that I was in a fight for sixth and I felt as strong, if not stronger, than some of the other riders around me. It’s so difficult to fight though without that edge grip but I fought hard and I’m happy enough. I wouldn’t usually be happy with a ninth, but I was close to the top six and that’s what we’ll take into tomorrow’s races where we’ll be looking to finish higher up the leaderboard in both races.”

Tommy Bridewell

“We’re all having to run the harder SCD tyre this weekend and it’s hurting us more than we expected, certainly more than our rivals, and we’ve been unable to get any form of Tommy Bridewellmechanical grip. We’ve made big changes throughout the weekend, but the feeling has remained the same, so it’s understandably been frustrating, and I didn’t think it would be this tough. That’s no excuse for a poor performance though; I should be better, I expect to be better, and I need to be better and that’s the undoubted aim for tomorrow. Track position will be key, and it will be interesting to see how things change for the whole field with six extra laps.”

Tito Rabat

“I changed to the SC2 front tyre for the race which I much preferred, I had a lot better feeling on the front but absolutely no grip from the rear. It felt like there was something on the tyre, we need to look into it as I just had no grip. So we will look tonight and see for tomorrow.”

Bennetts British Superbike Championship Standings

Superstock 1000 Race One

New dad Billy McConnell powered to his first win of the year with a last lap move on points leader Dan Linfoot.

After controlling most of the 14-lap race, Linfoot was powerless to stop McConnell as he shoved his Honda through on the final lap and then ran wide, allowing Richard Kerr through to take second.

Linfoot managed to keep third ahead of polesitter Lewis Rollo as Alastair Seeley took fifth.

Brayden Elliott was 12th.

Superstock 1000 Race One Results

Superstock 1000 Championship Standings

Supersport / GP2 Sprint Race

Ben Currie extended his championship lead as he finally took his first win of the year in the Thruxton Sprint race.

After a dramatic last lap scrap, Currie – who led a significant amount of the race before dropping back to third two laps from home – took the win by 0.385secs from Luke Stapleford.

Astro JJR’s Jamie Perrin had led into the final lap but was passed by Stapleford, the pair swapping places another twice before Currie charged through into the final chicane and made the move stick to take victory, as Stapleford beat Perrin by 0.242secs for second place.

However, Perrin was later disqualified from the results on a technical infringement, moving team-mate and title hopeful Rhys Irwin up to third, as pole-sitter TJ Toms took fourth with Eunan McGlinchey fifth.

Top Toparis took seventh while countryman Seth Crump was 23rd across the line.

Amongst the ranks are also the GP2 category competitiors, Joe Collier’s Kramer took the GP2 honours as he finished 11th overall, while Cameron Fraser took second and Harry Rowings third.

Supersport / GP2 Sprint Race Results

Supersport Points

GP2 Points

Supersport Cup Points

Junior Superstock Qualifying

Championship leader Aaron Silvester will start this weekend’s race from pole after pipping newcomer Casey O’Gorman by a slender 0.017secs.

As the weather caused upset, Silvester sneaked in a 1min 18.765sec lap with two minutes to go to knock the former British Talent Cup champion down to second ahead of his first race in the class.

Third quickest was early provisional pole holder Owen Jenner, as Cameron Dawson ended the session fourth with Asher Durham fifth.

Young Aussie Jacob Hatch will start from tenth on the grid.

Junior Superstock Qualifying Results