Jason O Halloran secured a good 10th place in the soaking conditions at Knockhill circuit yesterday at round six of the British Supersport Championship. Having only joined the East Coast Yamaha racing team on Monday the young Australian had a tough learning curve over the weekend and suffered every eventuality from a bike problem, a crash and wet conditions.
Jason first rode the Yamaha on Friday morning in the first practice session and was unfortunate to suffer an engine problem and was forced to miss the entire session. The team worked extremely hard to re-build the bike and get Jason out for the second session. The Australian made big progress and soon settled in well to riding the Yamaha. His luck once again was not on his side on Saturday morning during first qualifying as he tipped off at the hairpin taking most of the skin off his little finger in the process.
Working through the pain and also learning the new bike Jason managed to qualify the East Coast Yamaha in 14th place. However, the weather conditions changed severely overnight and the rain came down by the bucket full, putting doubt in everyone's mind if the racing would go ahead or not. The race director, Stuart Higgs and his MSVR team did a cracking job in difficult conditions to ensure that all racing that could take place did in between the very heavy rain showers.
The race was cut to 15 laps and Jason was unable to get a good start and slipped down through the pack on the opening laps and was lying in 16th place after the first lap. The safety car was deployed on lap five to clear dirt off the track after an incident and this bunched up the riders. The Australian was sat behind Joe Dickinson on lap seven in 14th place but was eager to progress forward. Setting some of the fastest laps during the final stages of the race Jason made some good passing manoeuvres to gain 10th place at the chequered flag.
Jason commented "It's been a very mental week followed by a pretty manic weekend, nothing like being thrown in at the deep end but I can't thank the East Coast Racing team enough for getting me here to Knockhill and working so hard throughout the weekend. We've gone through everything at Knokchill and I'm just really pleased that I brought the bike home with a half decent result. I know things will now start progressing in the direction that I want them too and I want to get some testing down before I go to Snetterton to settle into riding the Yamaha again. I know we had a few issues this weekend but I'm feeling really confident about the rest of the season. Roll on Snetterton."
Race Result
Sam Lowes Honda
Ben Wilson Kawasaki
Dan Cooper Triumph
Ian Hutchinson Honda
Alex Lowes Yamaha
James Westmoreland Yamaha
Glen Richards Honda
Graeme Gowland Honda
Jack Kennedy Yamaha
Jason O Halloran East Coast Racing Yamaha
2010 Calendar
Round 7 Snetterton 16th - 17th - 18th JulyRound 8 Brands Hatch GP 6th - 7th - 8th AugustRound 9 Cadwell Park 28th - 29th - 30th AugustRound 10 Croft 10th - 11th - 12th SeptemberRound 11 Silverstone 24th - 25th - 26th SeptemberRound 12 Oulton Park 8th - 9th - 10th October
