BSB Testing Monteblanco: O’Halloran ups the ante on day two

McCams Yamaha rider Jason O’Halloran took over the top spot on day two of the official Bennetts British Superbike test at Monteblanco. Onboard the Yamaha R1, after a career with Honda, the 31 year, who was second fastest on day one, moved to the number one position with a best lap of 1:36.587.

He said: “It was a pretty good day for us and we got through a lot of stuff. We did a lot of the base set-up on day one and that meant I could try a new swing arm and link on day two and we made a nice little step. I did a lot of laps on old tyres and then we used new ones and I’ve been pretty comfortable all day. Although it’s testing and only day two it’s nice to be at the top of the timesheets.”

Glen Irwin had an impressive second day of testing, posting the second fastest time of the rider of the day albeit 0.418s adrift of O’Halloran. The Quatro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider is clearly still adapting to the inline four cylinder ZX-10RR after riding the two cylinder Ducati, but is already showing strong pace.

He said: “It’s been productive so far and there is still a lot for us to get through. We had a few electronic issues on day one and we worked hard to fix them. I got out at the end of the day to do a proper time attack and it was nice to go out with the intention of pushing the bike really hard. There are still some areas that we need to improve on the bike, so given that I was surprised to go P2.”

Be Wiser PBM Ducati rider Scott Redding who topped the time-sheets on day one has shown instant pace on the new V4 Ducati despite having no Superbike race experience. The 26 year old finished third fastest ahead of team-mate Josh Brookes who increased his speed significantly during day two.

There were a number of crashes, but none bigger than Danny Buchan’s high speed turn one get-off. Incredibly the FS-3 Kawasaki rider walked away from the crash. Yamaha man Tarran Mackenzie suffered a turn six high side and was forced to sit out the afternoon session.