Jason O'Halloran claimed a hard-fought victory in the opening MCE British Superbike Championship race at Snetterton, taking advantage of a huge moment for his Honda Racing team-mate at Murrays on the final lap, to out drag him to the finish line to become the sixth different race winner.
The opening lap was full of drama as pole sitter Shane 'Shakey' Byrne led the pack into Riches ahead of Leon Haslam for the first time, however as the riders streamed through Montreal several riders collided with James Ellison, Richard Cooper and Broc Parkes all ending their race prematurely with Christian Iddon also taking evasive action.
A corner later and Haslam and Byrne both went for the same line into Palmers; the Be Wiser Ducati rider taking to the grass and dropping down to the order to second to last place on track. At the front O’Halloran and Linfoot were dicing for the lead and the pair had Haslam for close company.
Just two laps later and Glenn Irwin suffered a technical problem, but caused Peter Hickman and Michael Laverty to take a different line, the pair crashing out of the race.
At the front the lead changed several times as the Honda Racing pair traded blows for the lead, swapping throughout the race, but further back in the pack, Byrne was taking no prisoners and he was making his way through the field in aggressive fashion.
The Honda Racing pairing went into the final lap with nothing between them, O’Halloran had taken the lead at Riches, but Linfoot was on the attack and reclaimed the position at the end of the Bentley Straight. Linfoot looked like he was going to hold off his team-mate, but a huge moment on the exit of Murrays gave O’Halloran the opportunity he needed and the pair crossed the line with just 0.2s between them.
Byrne had moved into third position but behind there was an intense battle for fourth with Billy McConnell scoring the FS-3 Racing Kawasaki team’s best result of the season as Haslam dropped back to fifth place.
Jake Dixon impressed in only his second event to claim sixth place for the local Briggs Equipment BMW team with Luke Mossey and Tommy Bridewell returning to the top ten, just ahead of Stuart Easton and Lee Jackson.
Smiths Racing BMW’s Jakub Smrz and Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha’s James Rispoli scored their best result of the season so far in eleventh and thirteenth respectively.
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Snetterton, race one result:
Jason O'Halloran (Honda Racing)Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) +0.257sShane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) +10.494sBilly McConnell (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +13.135sLeon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +14.734sJake Dixon (Briggs Equipment BMW) +17.179Luke Mossey (Quattro Plant Teccare Kawasaki) +18.926sTommy Bridewell (Bennetts Suzuki) +20.404sStuart Easton (ePayMe Yamaha) +27.953sLee Jackson (Buildbase BMW) +28.136s
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship standings after race one:
Leon Haslam (JG Speedfit Kawasaki) 139Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) 131Jason O'Halloran (Honda Racing) 105Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW) 94Richard Cooper (Buildbase BMW) 93Dan Linfoot (Honda Racing) 91
