It turned out to be a great Easter Monday for Honda Racing, with both Jason O’Halloran and Dan Linfoot picking up plenty of points.
O’Halloran started race one of the day at Brands Hatch from sixth on the grid but soon found himself up into fourth place.
Linfoot would eventually get the better of O’Halloran for that position and the Australian eventually crossed the line back down in seventh.
Looking back at race one, O’Halloran said: “We went for the hard tyre option in race one, which turned out not to be the best choice, unfortunately. I didn’t have the same feeling I’ve had during all weekend, also due to the lower temperature we encountered today.”
O’Halloran made a great start to race two and found himself up in fourth by the end of lap one. The 29-year-old successfully defended his position for almost half distance and, after dropping down a couple of places, returned to fourth as the riders entered the last part of the race.
A couple of near high-sides meant that he was unable to keep the position but he did end up crossing the line in fifth place.
O’Halloran added: “I was not too far from the leading group in race two and I tried to hang in there as long as I could, although I lacked a bit of grip at the front-end. I was a couple of seconds away from the podium, which is a massive improvement for us.”
“We have some work to do in order to find some more grip with cooler conditions I’m sure that with temperatures increasing throughout the course of the season, we will be able to get even closer to the front.”
On the other side of the garage, Linfoot made a positive start from 10th on the grid in race one and held fourth place up until lap 13.
Linfoot maintained a solid pace throughout the rest of the encounter, which helped him keep fifth place until the end of the race.
Linfoot said: “I must give credit to my crew chief, Spider (Darren Maisey) because before race one he told me to use the softer rear tyre option, as he was sure it would have lasted for the whole race. It did pay off, especially considering that many other riders chose the SC1 instead.”
Linfoot was forced wide at Druids at the beginning of race two, and was knocked down to 11th position. The 28-year-old kept his head down though and managed to fight-back through to sixth at the finishing line.
Linfoot added: “Race two was a case of recovering as many places as I could, after having to run wide ad Druids on lap one. In the first 10-15 laps I made up some positions and then I focused on keeping a consistently fast pace once I saw it was nearly impossible to close the gap with Jason and the other guys ahead.
“Obviously, these are still not the results we’re looking forward but there has definitely been a big improvement from round one and I’m happy that I could ride the bike much more the way I like. We take these points and move on to the next race, with the goal to improve some more!”
The next round of the 2017 MCE British Superbike Championship takes place at Oulton Park on the weekend beginning April 29.
