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.


#22 -  Jason O'Halloran

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. I got a good start and made my way to the front and just wanted to control the pace and didn’t want to go too mad. I was watching the pit board and saw group five, group two, then one-second, two-seconds and saw I was getting away from the group. Leon came by and tried to up the pace, I knew I had something left and I managed to stay with him. I gave it all I could to try and win that race and it was so close at the end – it hurts more when you miss out by that much rather than a big amount! I know this year we will win some races, it’s just a matter of time! The team are doing a great job and every time I get on the Fireblade I’m more and more comfortable. 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!

#23 -  Ryuichi Kiyonari

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. Race one was difficult, there was a lot of crashes and I had a few moments where I nearly crashed, I pushed every lap but wasn’t able to make a break. The second race I finished 15th, the position for me was not so good, but the lap times and the feeling with the CBR was much better. I had my fastest lap on the final lap and I don’t want to say ‘if, or but’, but I think with more grip I would have been able to fight and maybe a top-ten. Even with the results I have enjoyed being at Oulton Park again and I want to say thank you so much to everyone at Honda and Moriwaki for the opportunity. 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. This morning during pit walk there was so many fans, so thank you to everyone to welcome me back for this weekend. Congratulations to Jason for his podium today, it was a good race and it’s always good to see the team do well.

Havier Beltran -  Team Manager

What a second race for Jason! He got away and into the front group straight away then took the lead. Haslam eventually passed him but he was able to stay on his tail until the end, it did look like he might have been able to put a move on him, but he crossed the line second, just behind him. 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. He showed today that he’s turned a corner and is chasing podiums; he’s ready to fight and that showed in the last race. The team did a fantastic job changing the engine and getting everything ready in time, so a big thanks to them. With Kiyo I’m so grateful for him coming over and jumping on the CBR last minute and trying things for us. We’ve tried a lot this weekend and it’s been a pleasure having him with the team again. 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. I want to extend my thanks again to Midori Moriwaki and to Kiyo for this weekend. 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!