Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran was not alone when it came to trying to maintain tyre life at Thruxton, during the MCE British Superbike double-header.

The Fireblade rider and his crew tried hard with different set-ups but they could not get the Pirelli tyre to completely last the race distance. O’Halloran competed on the SC2 front and SC0 rear compounds, but even with the tyre conservation issues he still managed two top six finishes.

Starting from ninth in race one, the Aussie made his way through the field to cross the line sixth. Starting race two from the second row of the grid in fifth place, O’Halloran stuck with the top group throughout the 18 laps.

Swapping places with his BSB rivals and making his way up to fourth, it was in the final stages of the race as tyre wear started to take hold that he dropped back and crossed the line fifth. Taking points at Thruxton, O’Halloran sits joint fifth with Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha’s Josh Brookes in the overall championship standings, and is just seven points away from fourth place in the standings.

“It’s been an OK weekend with the overall results, finishing sixth and fifth we’re now joint fifth in the championship and not too far from fourth place. So we’re looking positive with the Showdown position, but I know we’re getting some pressure from people behind us, so we need to continue finishing within the points as high as we can,” said O’Halloran.

“We have struggled this weekend with grip and although we have worked hard with set-ups and trying to maintain tyre life, we just couldn’t get on top of it. It’s something that has caused us issues in the past and I know we’re not alone as other teams have suffered too this weekend.

“I’m now going to focus on Cadwell Park, which is one of my favourite races of the season, last year we had two podiums and the test there a few weeks ago was really good, so I am confident we can have a good weekend there.”