Jason O’Halloran continued to set the pace in the second Bennetts British Superbike Championship free practice session at Donington Park today with the McAMS Yamaha rider dipping under the existing lap record with a time of 1’06.121s.
That put him 0.262s quicker than the the Massingberd Mundy FS-3 Racing Kawasaki of Danny Buchan with Kyle Ryde the star of the session as he placed third on the Buildbase Suzuki.
Buchan was immediately on the pace and posted a time of 1m06.717s after just five minutes of the session, a period which saw both Tarran Mackenzie and Tommy Bridewell improve from yesterday and leap up the leaderboard.
The Honda Racing duo of Andrew and Glenn Irwin were both quick to drop into the 1m06s bracket but it was that man O’Halloran who was again impressing and a time of 1m06.457s mid way through the session saw him knock Buchan off the top spot.
Buchan immediately responded and went just 0.012s slower with Luke Mossey another to improve as he jumped up to fifth to slot in behind the two Irwin siblings. Meanwhile, the Ducati pairing of Brookes and Iddon found themselves back in eighth and tenth with 15 minutes of the session remaining.
A flurry of activity in the closing stages saw Ryde jump up to third and then Buchan go back to the top of the timesheets with a time of 1m06.383s. O’Halloran wasn’t to be outdone though and reasserted his authority with just one minute to go.
Hector Barbera, Ryan Vickers and the impressive Joe Francis were all late improvers as they slotted into fourth, fifth and sixth with Andrew Irwin, Brookes, Bridewell and Glenn Irwin completed the top ten.
Mackenzie and Peter Hickman were both fallers as just one second covered the top 17 riders.
