BSB: Jason O'Halloran signs new deal with McAMS Yamaha for 2022

Jason O’Halloran has signed a new one-year contract extension with McAMS Yamaha for the 2022 Bennetts British Superbike Championship season.

It’ll be the Australian’s fourth campaign with Steve Rogers’ team, and since joining in 2019 O’Halloran has reached another level of his racing career. O’Halloran has been involved in the title fight for each of the last two seasons, finishing second in 2020 before suffering Showdown heartbreak in 2021.

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Building upon his breakthrough 2020 campaign, one where he avoided injury and misfortune on the circuit, O’Halloran came out firing on all cylinders at Oulton Park in June, securing the hat-trick – a feat he would also achieve at Thruxton.

In fact, O’Halloran won 11 of the 24 ‘main season’ races, taking 19 podiums. However, two crashes in the Showdown opener at Oulton saw teammate Tarran Mackenzie take control, with O’Halloran dropping to third overall at the season finale.

“2021 was my best ever season in BSB, I came into the season with four BSB wins to my name and ended the year on 15 having been on the podium in 22 out of the 33 races,” O’Halloran said. “There’s no hiding from the fact the end of the year didn’t go to plan, but, considering ’21 was a career best season for me, that is just added motivation for 2022.

“We’ve sat down during the winter, worked out where we need to improve and had a really productive visit to Yamaha Racing in Italy, who have a lot to come for the R1 which is encouraging. The R1 is without doubt the bike to be on at the minute and since joining McAMS Yamaha, each year we have made a significant step so hopefully we can do that again next year.”

With O’Halloran and Mackenzie both fighting for the title this year, McAMS Yamaha secured the Teams’ Trophy with a 200-point advantage, as well as claiming the Manufacturers’ Championship for Yamaha by over 100 points.

O’Halloran and Mackenzie, who have also been teammates since 2019, secured a combined total of 21 victories and 41 podiums on the YZF-R1. The team have already been to visit the Yamaha Europe HQ in Italy and will once again be working closely with the PATA Yamaha WorldSBK squad in 2022 – with a number of upgrades planned in the coming weeks.

“It’s almost unheard of for a team in BSB to keep the same rider line-up for four years straight, but for us it was a no brainer,” Rogers said. “Between them, Jason and Tarran won 63% of races last year and there were only a handful of races where one of our bikes wasn’t on the podium.

“There are almost no words to describe Jason’s dominance and consistency in the first eight rounds of the year, he was well and truly the man to beat for most of the season. The Showdown didn’t quite go his way, but having sat down with him I am confident that will only make him stronger for 2022. He’s already shown what he’s capable of and there is no doubt that McAMS Yamaha has the strongest line-up on the BSB grid, both of them can win, so fingers crossed we can retain that title with one of them!”

Testing for the 2022 BSB season begins at Snetterton on March 25-27.