SMT Honda retain Jason O’Halloran and Adam Jenkinson

SMT Honda will have a presence in both the British Superbike and Superstock classes in 2009 after retaining two young talents they ran briefly in 2008.

Jason O’Halloran, who finished fourth in this season’s Australian Superbike Championship, was drafted into the team for the final three rounds to compensate for the mass of injuries sustained by SMT Honda riders.

The 20-year old scored a best finish of seventh in race one at Silverstone and tallied 21 championship points in his three weekend appearances.

That has been enough to secure O’Halloran the Superbike ride with the SMT team.

Adam Jenkinson, who started the 2008 BSB season with SMT Honda, will drop into the Superstock class with the same team.

Jenkinson suffered horrific wrist injuries in a crash during race two at Thruxton back in April – injuries that kept him out of the rest of the 2008 campaign.

But SMT Honda Team Principal, Robin Croft, has continued their interest in Jenkinson for 2009, entering him into the Superstock 1000 category to get him back up to speed after a full season off a bike.

Croft said: “We’ve got a really strong line-up for 2009 and we’re delighted to have Jason and Adam on-board.

“Jason gelled with the team as soon as he came over to England and his talents were plain to see so we were determined to sign him as soon as we could.

“He’s young, he’s fast and he’s also extremely determined so February can’t come soon enough and we’re confident we’ll be challenging right from the very first round.

“We wanted to do all we could to keep Adam as well, after his terrible luck last year, and thanks to our loyal sponsors we’ve been able to do just that and expand the team to two riders.

“This will be a full assault on the title and will give Adam the ideal opportunity to get back to the form he showed at the beginning of 2008 before, hopefully, moving back into the Superbike class in 2010.”