Bennetts British Superbike Championship
Monteblanco, Official Test, Day Two
Jason O’Halloran topped the second day of testing at Monteblanco ahead of tomorrow’s final day of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship official test at the Spanish circuit, improving his pace to hold off a late attack at the top from Glenn Irwin and Scott Redding.
Glenn Irwin had led the early stages of day two from Xavi Forés, but Tarran Mackenzie was soon moving up the order. The McAMS Yamaha rider launched to the top of the timesheets shortly before lunch but a high-side ended his day early as he sat out the afternoon session ready to re-join the action tomorrow.
In the final 20 minutes before the lunch break though O’Halloran was on the move and his run of laps put him ahead of Redding.
After lunch the Spanish sunshine meant several riders opted to wait until the track conditions had cooled, with O’Halloran upping the pace again in the closing stages to claim the top spot, despite a last lap run from Glenn Irwin who fired the Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki into second, nudging Redding into third.
Jason O’Halloran
“Today was a really good day, it feels like every time we head out on the bike we find an improvement. This morning we worked a little more on refining the new forks we tried yesterday afternoon and then after lunch we went out with the new swingarm and links.
“It takes a bit of time to fine tune things, but every time we went out we went quicker. I did a couple of 1’36s today, four or five of them and feel really comfortable on the bike. We’ll keep working tomorrow, when we’ve got a frame to test which is probably the biggest thing we’ll test over this period so we need to see whether that’s a step forward.”
Mackenzie held on to fourth place despite sitting out the afternoon, narrowly ahead of Forés and Luke Mossey who had held a position inside the top five during the morning session for OMG Racing Suzuki.
Josh Brookes climbed to seventh on his final run of the day on the second of the Be Wiser Ducatis ahead of Claudio Corti for Team WD-40 Kawasaki.
Andrew Irwin, who had also been inside the top five earlier in the day held ninth for Honda Racing with Buildbase Suzuki’s Bradley Ray completing the top ten.
Ben Currie is adapting to the Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki Superbike and ended day two in 15th place.
South Australia’s Billy McConnell was 21st quickest overall, and the second quickest of the Superstock competitors taking part in the test.
Brayden Elliott, is not at the test, but announced overnight his intention to continue to run his privateer team throughout the 2019 British Superstock season however, he will run alongside and with support from CPE Motosport throughout race weekends feeding off their extensive knowledge.
Brayden Elliott
“I am extremely fortunate and thankful for the opportunity to run my own team NO BULL Racing amongst the British Superbike Championship, however taking on this role has certainly been challenging. For this reason, CPE Motosport and myself started discussions about joining forces for our 2019 campaign. I met up with the team in 2018 to lock in a plan of attack and although I’ve been in Australia it’s been a breath of fresh air having CPE Motosport helping out with pre-season preparations. It’s great that I will be on familiar machinery riding my Suzuki GSX-R 1000 for a second season with a great group of people around me. I’m very thankful to have Simon Stevens in my corner and on the tools throughout race weekends this season, also to be working with John Crockford. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to have a rider coach and also a team member to check data, I’m really excited to start working together. I’m positive Simon’s experience managing teams and John’s experience as a rider and coach will be a great match for this season.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship
Monteblanco, Official Test, Day Two Times
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 1m36.587s
- Glenn Irwin (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +0.418s
- Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.490s
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +0.611s
- Xavi Forés (Honda Racing) +0.624s
- Luke Mossey (OMG Racing Suzuki) +0.885s
- Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati) +0.924s
- Claudio Corti (Team WD-40 Kawasaki) +1.132s
- Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) +1.199s
- Bradley Ray (Buildbase Suzuki) +1.239s
- Josh Elliott (OMG Racing Suzuki) +1.416s
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing Ducati) +1.529s
- Ryan Vickers (RAF Kawasaki) +1.541s
- Danny Buchan (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +1.563s
- Ben Currie (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +1.610
- Luke Stapleford (Buildbase Suzuki) +1.953s
- Dean Harrison (Silicone Engineering Kawasaki) +2.277s
- STK Richard Cooper (Buildbase Suzuki) +2.498s
- David Allingham (EHA Yamaha) +2.548s
- Matt Truelove (Raceways/McAms Yamaha) +3.030s
- STK Billy McConnell (OMG Racing Suzuki) +3.486s
- STK James Hillier (Quattro JG Speedfit Kawasaki) +3.948s
- STK Graeme Irwin (Team 109 Kawasaki) +4.104s
- STK Tom Neave (Honda Racing) +4.180s
- Dean Hipwell (CDH Kawasaki) +4.275s
- Sam Coventry (Team 64 Kawasaki) +4.452s
- Alastair Seeley (EHA Yamaha) +5.049s
- STK Lee Jackson (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +5.056s
- Harry Truelove (Truelove Property Yamaha) +5.292s
- STK Gary Johnson (RAF Kawasaki) +5.367
- STK Lee Johnston (Ashcourt Racing Yamaha) +6.822s
Source: MCNews.com.au
