The 11th round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Assen was action packed with two thrilling races at the Dutch circuit. Honda Racing’s trio enjoyed a solid weekend and in race two Jason O’Halloran placed his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade machine on the podium in third place.
Starting the second race of the day from pole position after scoring the fastest lap in race one, where he finished fifth, the O’Show was determined from the start and the pressure was on for a podium finish.
Dicing with the leading group throughout the 18 laps, the Aussie never dropped below fourth place. By the ninth lap and with a lot of place swapping and some carefully planned maneuvers he was third, chasing down second. O’Halloran eventually crossed the line third behind Shane Byrne and race winner Leon Haslam. O’Halloran is fifth in the championship standings, just four points behind the fourth-place spot.
Meanwhile team-mate Dan Linfoot enjoyed some good on-track battles with his Honda companion. Race one saw the pair swapping paint and places, with Linfoot finishing fourth. The second race of the day saw the Yorkshireman behind O’Halloran on the grid, but in the opening stages he’d dropped back to fifth place.
Finding his rhythm on the Fireblade Linfoot pushed and fought his way back through the battling group and by the tenth lap he was up in fourth. Hot on O’Halloran’s heels, Linfoot had a catching Luke Mossey to fend off. The final lap was nail biting with places swapped at every corner and it was over the line that Linfoot snatched fourth place from Mossey. Linfoot remains third overall in the championship standings with 566 points.
Honda’s third rider Jenny Tinmouth had a positive weekend beating personal bests and improving in each session. In race one the Cheshire rider struggled slightly with pace, crossing the line in 27th. Race two was better and saw Tinmouth battle with riders in her group. Moving up from her starting position of 30th, she crossed the line 26th.
The team will now prepare all three CBR machines for the final round of the MCE British Superbike Championship, which takes place at Brands Hatch on 14-16 October, for what is set to be an action packed triple-header weekend.
It was another podium for us in race two, I think that’s now our seventh this year, and I’m really pleased with it. We had a good solid race and we led parts of it and it was really tight. When someone came up behind me and passed me I tried to counter attack straightaway on the same lap. We had to use the hard tyre this weekend because of the weather conditions and the only other place we’ve used it was in the second race at Silverstone. We’re a little bit inexperienced with it but we’ve seen we can get some good times out of it and we can do some work with it as we head to Brands Hatch and hopefully get three podiums there.
It’s another fourth and a handful of points in the second race, it means we retain third overall. I lost a bit of time at two-thirds race distance; I was fighting a lot with Ellison and Jason and the leaders just seemed to push on a little bit. I’m a little bit disappointed with that but you got to be happy, two strong finishes and fighting for the podium is where we need to be. I’m happy to go to Brands Hatch with third overall and try to maintain that there.
I struggled for grip in race one with the rear tyre, but race two was loads better. I had a really good race and was in a battle with another three riders; I managed to get past them and finish ahead of them three. I really enjoyed it today and the tyre was a lot better in race two. Now I’m just looking forward to going to Brands.
It’s a great result for Dan and Jason. For the two of them to be at the sharp end like this here at Assen with the mixed weather and with blistering pace it’s great. For me, that race was incredible with the two of them battling like they were at the front, all credit to both of them. Jenny has improved her times and resolved a few issues that she had in race one. Really pleased again that she’s got two solid finishes and I'm looking forward to taking them all to Brands.
