McAMS Yamaha teammates Jason O’Halloran and reigning British Superbike Champion Tarran Mackenzie shared the three race wins on offer at the latest round of the series at Brands Hatch, July 22-24.
It was O’Halloran who drew first blood in Saturday’s sprint race, besting Mackenzie by 0.6 seconds, who in turn was only 0.4 seconds up on Ducati’s Tommy Bridewell.
However, the current number one would have his revenge in Sunday’s races, taking his first win of the season in race two over O’Halloran by 1.16 seconds, before a nail-biting win in race three that saw his margin of victory from O’Halloran a scant 0.037 seconds. Bridewell took third again in race two while Honda’s Glenn Irwin took the place in race three.
“On the last lap I did my best in sector one, so Jason didn’t come by,” Mackenzie said after race three. “I know he’s strong into Stirling’s, so I went defensive, and I braked so deep into the last corner! The forks went metal to metal, bounced back and poked me in the eyes and then he came flying by. I thought ‘there’s no way he’s stopping that’ and to be fair to him, if I hadn’t have just driven underneath him, I think he probably would’ve got it.
“I was completely sideways, the limiter lights were on, I was shifting and then because the start-finish straight is banked if you’re at the top you can get a run down. I could feel him coming towards me and I could see a wheel.
“It was just a hectic, stressful last 10 laps with me and him. It was probably some of the best, most clean racing I think out of all of us.”
O’Halloran still leads the title race, 265 to Yamaha’s Bradley Ray on 255. Mackenzie’s performance puts him up to eighth on 105 after a slow start to his title defense. CN
2022 British Superbike Round 5 Results
Click here for all the latest Road Racing news.
