The Samsung Honda team endured a tough second round of the British Superbike Championship at Thruxton with Jon Kirkham taking a pair of seventh places with Michael Laverty scoring sixth and thirteenth.
In the opening race, Kirkham got caught in the pack on the first lap, which saw him drop down the order and then a determined ride saw him work back up to seventh. Michael Laverty started thirteenth of the grid and he also worked his way through the field to sixth place. In race two Kirkham equalled his seventh place whilst Laverty had a challenging race to finish thirteenth.

In the Superstock 1000 Championship Jason O'Halloran scored another podium finish third on the Samsung Honda. He had a strong start from the front row of the grid before a safety car period following a crash on the opening lap. O’Halloran dropped down to fifth but fought back in the closing stages.

Jon Kirkham:

“I was blocked on the opening lap of the first race and dropped back to about 16th and had to fight-back so all things considered I am really happy with that result. I made a bad tyre choice in the second. In the first race I had 14 good laps but in the second I only had six good laps so I should have stuck with what I had. At least I have some points in the bag from this meeting.”

Michael Laverty:

“It has been a tough weekend really and in the first race my grid position gave me a lot of work to do. In race two I said to the team to go to a harder tyre but it was a mistake as our bike works well around here with the softer tyre. When they put the harder tyre in we had to make too many changes to the bike and we did have any grip.”

Jason O’Halloran:

“As soon as soon as the safety car came in I thought we could make a charge but there were riders coming passed me at what felt like every corner and it messed up my rhythm a bit. We were fast on the straight but I was struggling with grip in some sections. Another podium is a great result for me and the Samsung Honda team.”

Havier Beltran, Team Manager:

“It wasn’t the best day in the office for us and we had a few tyre situations that didn’t work how we had hoped, but at the same time two results are better than two DNFs. We now have a good amount of data to look through and we can then benefit from that. For Jason O'Halloran it was fantastic to get another podium finish.”

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