Frustrating weekend for rider O’Halloran

There was no luck or championship points for Jason O’Halloran on his visit to Knockhill in Scotland for round five of the British Superbike championship as his McAMS Yamaha suffered a technical issue which prevented him from finishing either of the two races.
Jason O'Halloran EMN-190415-113105002Jason O'Halloran EMN-190415-113105002
Jason O'Halloran EMN-190415-113105002

At just over 1.2 miles, Knockhill is the shortest circuit on the BSB calendar and as such, times were incredibly close with the top 18 riders all within a second of the quickest time during free practice.

However, when it came to qualifying the heavens had opened and a huge thunderstorm delayed the session for more than two hours.

Once the rain slowed the riders took part in one 40-minute qualifying session and the Market Rasen-based Australian secured a place on the third row for the first race on Sunday.

On a drying track, O’Halloran was fifth on the first few laps before being passed by Andrew Irwin.

But his machine was seen to be producing some smoke by the marshals and he was shown the black and orange flag which meant he had to get off the track as quickly as possible.

He actually missed the flags waved at him and was handed a six place grid penalty for the second race meaning he was to start from 21st place.

He made a good start and was circulating in 13th place when the safety car was brought out to recover an injured rider.

At 18 laps distance and running in 14th place he was under observation for smoke being emitted from his machine again.

One lap later the black and orange flag was once again shown to him and he was forced to return to the pits his race over.

Since moving to McAMS Yamaha O’Halloran has not had much luck as he was taken out of the first race of the series by his teammate when leading the race and since then his best result has been a fourth place at Oulton Park when, in reality, he should be capable of winning races.

He is now down in joint 12th place on 57 points and will be hoping for a change of luck in the next round at Snetterton where he has previously won races.

The next round at Snetterton is on July 19-21.

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