BSB FRIDAY

Jason O'Halloran leads his Bennetts British Superbike Championship rivals into tomorrow’s eBay Sprint race at Thruxton as the McAMS Yamaha rider recovered from his crash in the opening session to top the times by 0.072s.

The Australian had captured the position at the top in the final five minutes of the second session where just 0.9s covered the top 15 riders. O’Halloran upped the pace to push Peter Hickman back into second. Ray’s best lap time though came on his final lap of the session, surging into second and it was enough to nudge Tom Sykes on the MCE Ducati outside of the top three.

The former World Champion had his best opening day of the season in fourth place, just ahead of Honda Racing UK’s Glenn Irwin who completed the top five with Kyle Ryde holding sixth position at the chequered flag.

Danny Kent was the second of the former World Champions to feature in the top ten, holding seventh place for the Buildbase Suzuki team, maintaining his position ahead of Lee Jackson on the leading Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki.

Tommy Bridewell was ninth fastest at his home round for the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team, just 0.004s adrift of Jackson ahead of him with Ryan Vickers completing the top ten on the FHO Racing BMW with Attis Sports.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Thruxton, SUPERPICKS Combined Free Practice times:

1. Jason O'Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 1m:14.723s
2. Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.072s
3. Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +0.164s
4. Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati) +0.276s
5. Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing UK) +0.421s
6. Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.455s
7. Danny Kent (Buildbase Suzuki) +0.587s
8. Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki) +0.615s
9. Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +0.619s
10. Ryan Vickers (FHO Racing BMW with Attis Sports) +0.710
11. Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +0.766s
12. Leon Haslam (VisionTrack Kawasaki) +0.813s

For more information on the Bennetts British Superbike Championship visit www.britishsuperbike.com