BSB: O'Halloran slams 'over ambitious' Brookes

Jason O’Halloran has slammed Josh Brookes after a hard move from the McAMS Yamaha rider on the final lap of the opening race denied him a podium.

A strong race from O’Halloran saw him slip past Brookes into third position on the final lap in this afternoon’s first race, but Brookes lunged past his countryman in a last gasp attempt to reclaim third position at the final chicane, barging into the side of his Honda and taking both riders off the track.

While Brookes didn’t lose position in the incident, O’Halloran dropped back to cross line sixth.

Furious with the result, O’Halloran slammed his fellow Aussie for the incident with the duo exchanging words in the Honda Racing garage following the race.

“I thought I timed it pretty perfect, made a good pass on Josh, which was clean, and then I don’t know what he was thinking, it was certainly an over-ambitious move to say the least” he said.

“He’s obviously gone beyond his capabilities today, ran into the side of me and ran himself off track too. That was unfortunate for me as I lost a couple of positions while he kept his position…

“He didn’t come to apologise after the race, he came to have a go at me… It is what it is. He was beyond himself today, but we’ll see what we can do this afternoon.”

MCN understands Honda have approached race direction to discuss the incident, but at this stage there is no word on the outcome.

Defending his move, Brookes has said it was a racing incident, but admitted he would have apologised had O’Halloran not given him the middle finger on the cooldown lap.

“It was best described as a lunge, but this is a British Superbike Championship and those points could make the difference between winning the title or not,” Brookes said.

“If it was the last race, last corner for the title you would absolutely make a move like that… I don’t think it was completely out of place considering it was the last turn on the last lap.

“I was just surprised at his attitude. I’ve been bumped and barged and pushed around at that corner in qualifying! I never made comment or anything like that, I just got on with it and thought what goes around comes around.

“Jason was quite visual about how he felt after the race so I went to see if I could clear things up but he didn’t want to talk or accept the situation for what it was. If he hadn’t made a situation about it then I might have offered an apology… He was sticking his finger up and waving his hands about, so I didn’t think it warranted an apology. He wasn’t in a mindset to clear the air, he wanted to say what he wanted to say and that’s OK, he’s obviously frustrated with his season and his results and that’s where it is.”

Picture: Jamie Morris