Jason O'Halloran had his career best season in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship last year, finishing runner-up in the title fight and the McAMS Yamaha rider returns bidding to go one better in 2021.

O’Halloran has previously had his title campaigns thwarted by injury and his fair share of bad luck, however in 2020 the Australian contender claimed three victories and a further eight podiums on his way to finishing second in the overall standings.

The ‘O’Show’ has shown strong pace during pre-season testing, returning to Oulton Park this weekend, knowing that he had set the benchmark time at the official test last month and completed a double victory at the Cheshire venue in 2020.

“We’ve had a really good pre-season,” said O’Halloran. “We had a plan and things to work on from last year, so we’ve been working through those pretty quickly and we’re comfortable with the changes now which is good. We’re back in a nice little window with the bike, like we were last year so it’s just about making small tweaks now.

“Obviously we topped a couple of the tests which was nice but not really in the plan - you know it wasn’t like I went for the top of the test, it just sort of happened. Most of the test days, Silverstone, Knockhill and Donington, we spent time doing longer runs and one full distance run at each of those tests which I think will put us in a good place when we go racing. Silverstone and Donington being the best tracks, in terms of where I put my best lap of that particular session in the longer runs, which is always nice.”

The momentum from testing is something that has made O’Halloran arrive at Oulton Park feeling refreshed and ready to go for the season ahead.

“I’m generally just quite confident going into the new season,” added O’Halloran. “You never really know until you get into the race regarding how it’s going to play out. You can think about it as much as you want but until you get racing it’s a slightly different thing.

“I am looking forward to getting the first one underway at Oulton Park and I think we’re in a good place, I won a couple of races last year and topped the official test there this year, so I’m feeling good going into the weekend.

“We love racing there and we’re going into this weekend trying to win; there’s no hiding it. We finished second last year and I want to win the championship this year, and so we have to try and win races from the start. I feel like we are in a position to do that. It certainly won’t be easy but it never is, so we’ll just put our best foot forwards and work through our programme and hopefully we’ll have a few trophies to show for our efforts.

“I think the biggest thing about this season is going into it off the back of a strong year. We’ve not been searching for anything big, but we’ve just got small things to work on. I’ve never been in a position before where I can focus on doing a long run and I’m looking at my lap time thinking ‘right how fast can I go, what lap time can I achieve for the whole race?’

“I’ve never been in a position before where I can think of having a bit in my back pocket. Thinking that I can actually go a bit faster here, or go a little bit slower there as the tyres need to last, and so I’m in a really good place. All of that comes from a really strong performance last year and the confidence from that and generally I’m in a really strong position with the bike, the team and myself.”