Australian Jason O’Halloran secured a 10th place finish in the soaking conditions at Knockhill circuit on Sunday in round six of the British Supersport Championship, joining the East Coast Yamaha team on the Monday before the event after splitting with Triumph recently.
The 2007 Australian Supersport Champion 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, before he soon adapted to the R6 in session two.
O’Halloran’s 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, O’Halloran managed to qualify the East Coast Yamaha in 14th place before the rain set in overnight before race day.
The race was cut to 15 laps and, after getting a bad start, O’Halloran set some of the fastest laps during the final stages of the race to gain 10th place at the chequered flag.
“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,” he explained.
“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.”
Top Australian finisher was South Australian Glen Richards in seventh.
The Snetterton round will take place on 16-18 July.