The sixth round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Thruxton has been a challenging weekend for the Honda Racing team but it was turned around in the final race of the day, with Jason O’Halloran placing his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade on the podium in second place.
Both races at the Wiltshire circuit were dramatic with race one red flagged at half race distance. The restart saw a 12-lap sprint commence with O’Halloran starting seventh and team-mate Dan Linfoot fifth. Pushing throughout the Honda duo suffered the same fate as most this weekend struggling with grip.
The end result saw the Aussie finish sixth, but disaster struck for Linfoot who dropped down the pack and whilst running 25th on lap seven came into the garage scoring a DNF. Meanwhile Jenny Tinmouth, who had been having a positive weekend with improved times crashed out unhurt, before the race was red flagged.
Race two saw a polar opposite start for the Honda pair with the ‘O’Show’ on the front row in second place and Linfoot on the back row in 28th. Throughout the shortened 18-lap race O’Halloran defended his front row-starting place and, although running in third place for six laps, he took back second place where he eventually crossed the line.
Determination was definitely on Linfoot’s mind as he made his way through the field from 28th and by the end of the first lap had made up 10 places on his CBR machine. Continuing to push lap-by-lap the Yorkshireman picked off his rivals as he made his way through, claiming the fastest lap of the race. By the 11th lap he was starting to chase down his team-mate having made it to fourth place, but grip once again proved an issue and he eventually crossed the line ninth.
O’Halloran and Linfoot remain within the top-six of the BSB championship standings in third and fifth places. Unfortunately after damage sustained to Tinmouth’s Fireblade in race one, she wasn’t able to take part in the second race.
The team will now return to base and focus its efforts on the next round of the championship, which takes place 5-7 August at Brands Hatch.
I was really disappointed with the end result in race one, we had a podium position until the last three laps and then dropped to sixth. So after the race the boys put their heads together and we made a small change to the Fireblade. I started from second place, got a good start off the line and was running with the leaders for the whole time. I felt really strong throughout the race and the grip did start to soften a little towards the end of the race, but I’m happy with the finish – especially after my accident here last year. The result is another good points haul for the championship and keeps me in the top-three. It was another good job from my crew and Honda Racing, and I’m now looking forward to the next race at Brands.
Jason O'Halloran / #22
I’ve not really got much to say about race one if I’m honest it was disappointing for everyone. We started third on the grid and finished 28th – no one wants that. Five or six laps into the race I experienced a huge lack of grip, the race was then stopped and I restarted fifth but it was no good and I couldn’t do anything else. I pulled in, as I wasn’t confident continuing, which was a huge blow. For the second race I knew I had to pull something out the bag starting from 28th, but it was a strong race and I pulled through and was running fourth for some time. But I couldn’t maintain the momentum and started to drop places finishing ninth, however we showed good potential but didn’t get the points I needed today. Starting 28th and finishing ninth shows we can do it and I can do it, I pushed hard throughout, but it wasn’t our weekend today. So it’s onwards and upwards now and I hope we can get back to the podium at Brands Hatch.
Dan Linfoot / #4
It’s been a good weekend overall until race one, I’m chuffed to bits with my lap times they’ve been really good and a massive improvement compared to last year, which we managed pretty much straight away in FP1. It’s been positive and I’m really gutted I clipped the curb there in race one and unfortunately the Fireblade is a little too damaged and couldn’t be turned around in time for race two, so I had to sit that one out. I am devastated about that as Thruxton is one of my favourite tracks and I was having a good weekend. But now we just need to regroup and move our focus to the next round at Brands Hatch.
Jenny Tinmouth / #20
Well it’s been a challenging weekend for us here; race one was so hard with tyre wear, having to restart and there was a lot going on. But I am pleased for Dan and Jason with the race two results - especially for Jason on the podium. I know his crew made some small changes to the Fireblade, not massive, but changes to help him, which paid off. We made some changes also to Dan’s machine from race one to two, which we saw helped as he made his way through the group from 28th to fourth place at one stage. It was an incredible ride for him and to score the fastest lap, so I hope we can learn from this and move forward. It’s been a mixed weekend for Jenny, she was progressing with her times but a small mistake in race one has done a lot of damage to the Fireblade, so she wasn’t able to take part in race two. I just don’t want this to damage any confidence she’s built up, which sometimes small mistakes can. We now have a few weeks before Brands so we need to look at this weekend and see where we can move forward.
Havier Beltran - Honda Racing team manager
