British Superbikes: O’Halloran with work to do after Brands Hatch

A weekend of much promise fell a little flat for O'Halloran EMN-190617-152241002

He recorded eighth and ninth-place finishes at Brands Hatch in round four of the British Superbike Championship which lifted him into 10th in the rider standings on 57 points.

O’Halloran made significant progress through free practice and completed his qualifying in third place for a front row start to the first of two 20-lap races.

Given that the Australian rider had secured his first front row start since Silverstone there were high hopes that he would be up at the front in both races.

But unfortunately he was unable to transform his rapid qualifying pace into race pace as he struggled with several issues in both races.

The first race was run in the wet and, despite a good start, O’Halloran struggled for pace as the rain cleared and the track began to dry, dropping back to cross the finish line in eighth position.

His poor lap time left him down on the fourth row for the start of race two which was run in dry conditions.

In spite of a good start he was beaten up in the early stages and dropped back as far as 15th before making a comeback.

O’Halloran fought his way back to ninth, but was struggling with a lack of feeling from the front and completed the race in that position.

“After qualifying on the front row yesterday, we were expecting a lot better than what we got today,” he said.

“The first race was really tricky in the wet conditions – I started quite well, but I had a problem with a lack of feeling at the front end and slowly drifted back.

“I started the second race on row four, which was always going to be difficult.

“The first lap was something else, there were people left, right and centre and I ended up 15th on lap one.

“I got back up to ninth and then didn’t have any more pace to close down the gap, so we had to bring it home for some points.

“We have some work to do; we have to improve the feeling with the bike.

“We’ll put our heads together and try and improve our race pace. I need a better feeling in race conditions.”

The next round is at Knockhill from June 28 to 30.