The Honda Racing British Superbike team kicked off the 2018 season in fighting style today at Donington Park scoring a double points finish, with Dan Linfoot fourth and Jason O’Halloran seventh. The opening race of the 2018 Bennetts British Superbike Championship season took place this afternoon, having been brought forward due to weather conditions at the Leicestershire circuit.

With yesterday’s practice sessions affected by wet weather, today’s forecast saw dry but cold conditions at the 2.4873-mile circuit. Both Linfoot and O’Halloran started the day with positive times and wrapped up a shortened qualifying session sixth and ninth respectively, meaning a second row start for O’Halloran and a third row for Linfoot, ahead of the opening race.

Both Honda men charged their CBR1000RR Fireblades off the line as the lights went out and settled into good rhythms during the opening laps. Unfortunately The O’Show was run wide and lost momentum and some places, but soon got back into the leading pack catching his teammate up in the process.

With Fireblade paint being swapped during the closing stages of the 18-lap race, both Linfoot and O’Halloran wanted fourth place and went about trading places for the spot. Unfortunately for Aussie O’Halloran, a technical issue hampered his fight, as a broken gear lever in the final lap pushed him back to seventh place, while Linfoot crossed the line fourth.

Tomorrow’s second race will see the Honda duo line up on the grid with Linfoot fifth and O’Halloran hot on his heels in sixth place. The second race is scheduled to take place at 1630.



#4 -  Dan Linfoot

I’m quite happy after today, of course I would have loved a podium and being the first place off is a little frustrating, but the bigger picture is that it’s a long season and fourth is a good way to start really, so I can’t be too disappointed with that. The race was difficult, but also enjoyable as we were close with other riders and I enjoyed some of the overtaking moves. The tyre situation was difficult it was spinning a lot from lap one, so I had to settle into the CBR and I could see the other guys having similar issues, so I just made a plan to get stuck in and go with it. I finished three seconds off the win, which I’m happy enough with and we have a decent grid position for tomorrow, so we now have to see what the weather does overnight and tomorrow. The Fireblade feels good and I’m very happy with the new engine specification, it’s nice and calm out of corners and fast on the straights, which some other riders have commented on, so that’s good feedback for the lads and the work they have done over winter. We do have some things to brush up on and improve for tomorrow, but I am content on where we are and we now need to focus on being ready for when the guys up the pace at the front and when the weather improves, so we can move with them and continue building.

#22 -  Jason O'Halloran

Race one was good, we got a good start from the line and I got up to third place, I was feeling really comfortable and was in a good rhythm when I got run wide. I lost about four places and a lot of momentum and just went backwards. After a few laps I started to build up again and from that point I felt strong and was able to make some good passes to get closer to the front. I managed to get into fourth and could see the guys in front weren’t that far away and then I started to have a good battle with Dan, which was good fun! We swapped places a few times at the end of the race and I was pushing for fourth, but unfortunately on the last lap my gear lever broke and I ended up crossing the line seventh. I am disappointed to not finish fourth, but that’s racing sometimes and you have to take the highs with the lows, and the lows with the highs. I think we can take confidence to know that we had good speed for the little amount of dry track time we’ve had this weekend and I feel confident in the package we have. I know that with a few small tweaks here and there, it won’t be too long until we’re fighting at the front.


Havier Beltran - Honda Racing team manager

Well it’s not been ideal conditions for the start of the championship really, it’s been cold and wet all weekend, but yet today for the start of the race the track starts to warm! I’m really happy for both Dan and Jason with their ability to move forward in the latter part of the race and pull back some places. Dan finishing fourth was great, I know he’s upset not to be on the podium, but it’s a long championship and there’s time for that, we know he’s got race wins and podiums in him, so if we continue in this way I’m sure it won’t be long until he’s up there. I’m upset for Jason having a technical issue at the end, which seems to have been a broken gear lever, which saw him drop back some places. But overall I am happy that we started strong and both riders finished the race scoring points. It goes to show that both Dan and Jason are keen and ready to fight with their battle on track and we couldn’t ask for better than that really, it may have lost them some time, but I am pleased with the performance and starting the opening race strong. I’m looking forward to the second race tomorrow, we’re starting well from the second row, so with today’s results behind us we know what we’ve got to do and keep building on that.