This weekend (3-5 August) Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran will be joined on the CBR1000RR Fireblade by young gun Tom Neave at the seventh, and fastest, round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Thruxton in Hampshire.

Neave joins the Honda squad for the next two rounds stepping in for injured Dan Linfoot, who fractured his left scaphoid last time out at Brands Hatch.

Making his BSB debut, the 23-year old from Lincolnshire finished fifth overall in the National Superstock 600 Championship last year, and this year has been competing in the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship, where he’s racked up two podium finishes so far, despite having missed the first three rounds through injury.

Meanwhile Honda stalwart O’Halloran is looking towards the top-ten this weekend as he continues to recover from his ankle injury. With progress made at Brands Hatch, ‘The O’Show’ is hoping for another strong outing and to collect further points towards his championship challenge, where he currently sits 11th – with 45 points separating him from the top-six.

Track action for the seventh round gets underway on Friday (3 August) with first practice taking place at 10.05-10.50. Live timing across the weekend will be available from: britishsuperbike.com/live-timing

#68 -  Tom Neave

It’s a bit of a dream come true really and I keep pinching myself to make sure it is really happening and that I did get the call from Harv! I’d had a mixed weekend at Brands, then on the Monday the phone rang and it was Havier and it was literally the best day of my life! I have dreamt of this since I started racing and to have this opportunity and experience is something else. Honda Racing is one of the teams you aspire to and look up to and I am so privileged to get this opportunity. I have had two days riding the Fireblade, which was great fun, although we had a lot of traffic on track so I wasn’t fully able to spread its wings and get a real feel for it. So I am looking forward to Friday in first practice to get that feeling. The team have all been so nice and welcoming and I already feel like I have been there years, the first day was a little like new school day, but instantly everyone made me feel welcome. I can’t wait to get going this weekend and thank you so much to Havier, Honda Racing and to Honda UK for this opportunity.

#22 -  Jason O'Halloran

Everything is going really well with my recovery at the moment, I have had a good week and a half since Brands Hatch and I have just been continuing with my programme with physiotherapy, the cryotherapy and training, the ankle is getting stronger and I am getting more movement. The more movement I have the more I’m able to go back to normal training on the bike and on the rower, so we’re getting there! It’s been a slow process but as the ankle gets stronger I get more movement and I’m able to do more. I’m looking forward to the weekend, Thruxton is a great circuit and as we only get to ride there once a year, it’s somewhere I really enjoy. I’ve had some decent results in the past and just looking forward to making some more progress with my racing this weekend. It’s hard to put an exact number on how much progress you’ve made, but taking it race-by-race, two weeks ago I had pace and made it to the flag in both races, something which at Knockhill and Snetterton I wasn’t able to do. The target for this weekend is to move forward up into the top-ten and to the front. We know with me fully fit and the CBR we can be up there, we’ve proved that at the start of the year and we’ve just got to get back there now. I’m working as hard as I can and doing as much as I can, and I really hope we’re back up there soon.

Havier Beltran - Team Manager

Of course we’ll miss Dan this weekend and we all wish him a speedy recovery and hope to have him back soon, but it’s great to welcome Tom to the team. We’ve had two tests with him at Cadwell last week and this week and he’s impressed me so far. We’ve struggled a little with traffic on track, so he’s not been able to really push, but I think he’s going to get on well this weekend and it’s great to be able to give a young potential future star the opportunity to ride in the Superbike class. Thanks to Mark at No Limits for the track time and to the manager of Cadwell Park, Paul Woodford for being so accommodating.

This weekend Jason will be continuing his recovery and getting him back to where we know he can be, he’s working so hard in between races and his determination to get back to the front is something else. We’ve got some points to make up with the Showdown looming, so I hope he can have a good, strong weekend and get some solid points to move him towards sixth place.