OULTON PARK
6th - 7th May 2018
BSB ROUND 3 – OULTON PARK
PODIUM CELEBRATION FOR HONDA RACING AND JASON O’HALLORAN AT OULTON PARK
The third round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park was a strong weekend for Honda Racing as Jason O’Halloran placed the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade on the podium in the final race of the day, adding to his podium tally and boosting his championship points.
With perfect conditions at the Cheshire circuit the opening race of the day saw a strong performance for O’Halloran, running with the front group to finish fifth. Heading into the second race ‘The O’Show’ got a flying start off the line and quickly made his way to the front, taking the lead early on.
With good pace aboard the Fireblade, the Aussie held the lead for the majority of the 18-lap race and it wasn’t until the closing stages when Leon Haslam made a pass. Keeping on Haslam’s heels until the chequered flag, O’Halloran crossed the line just 0.086 seconds off the win and claimed the fastest lap of the race (1:34.857). With today’s results ‘The O’Show’ has moved up the championship standings into fourth place.
Meanwhile Ryuichi Kiyonari scored two top-15 places in both races as he stood in for Dan Linfoot. Helping the Honda team with the development of the CBR and with some key areas successfully tested across the weekend, ‘Kiyo’ made up places in both races to finish race one 12th and race two 15th, with consistent lap times throughout.
The team will now return to the workshop as they start to prepare for the fourth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, which takes place at Snetterton in Norfolk on 15-17 June.
Today has been a really great day for us! In race one we had a small issue towards the end and came home fifth, but it was a good bunch of points collected. Going into race two, the boys did a great job putting a new engine in and it was a frantic few hours getting ready in the garage – but a massive thanks to them for giving me such a fantastic bike and it was probably the best I have felt on the Honda since I’ve been riding it. We have a little break now in the series and then it’s Snetterton, I’ve had a win there before and a host of BSB podiums, so we’ll go there and try to win some races!
I have enjoyed so much being back in the British championship for this weekend, but I am a little disappointed with my race results as I was hoping to be better than yesterday. It has been so good to be back in BSB and I know many young British rider wants to ride but to have this opportunity was amazing and I am so thankful to come back to the UK to race. Congratulations to Jason for his podium today, it was a good race and it’s always good to see the team do well.
What a second race for Jason! He got away and into the front group straight away then took the lead. I’m so happy for Jason and the team, we had some issues in race one and he definitely went into the second race with fight and determination. With Kiyo I’m so grateful for him coming over and jumping on the CBR last minute and trying things for us. I appreciate it’s not an easy task coming over here and our Fireblade is a very different machine to what he rides in Japan. We will now regroup and look towards the fourth round at Snetterton, we have a little break until the next round but with Jason’s track record there, I think we could be on to something!
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