The Honda Racing team arrives at Brands Hatch this weekend (13-15 April) ready for the second round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, with Dan Linfoot and Jason O’Halloran confident in the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and the development made over the winter season.
Linfoot’s campaign got off to a solid start at the opening round finishing fourth in race one and placing the CBR on the podium in the second race, which has placed him third in the overall standings going into the second round.
Meanwhile teammate O’Halloran also enjoyed a strong opening round with a host of top-ten finishes throughout the weekend and showed good pace aboard the Fireblade.
The Honda duo are looking forward to getting stuck into the racing action at the 1.2-mile Indy circuit, which is set for some close racing over the weekend, with Linfoot and O’Halloran looking to build their points tally and chase down all-important podium spots.
The first BSB session of the weekend, Free Practice 1, gets underway on Friday (13 April) at 10.10 with the two races scheduled to start at 13.30 and 16.30 on Sunday (15 April).
Dan Linfoot
“I’m really looking forward to this weekend; we’ve come away from Donington in a really good position and I’m happy with the results, and to score my first podium of the year during the opening round puts us in a good place. Hopefully the weather will be on our side at Brands, so to be able to ride the Fireblade in more ‘normal’ conditions will be nice and also get the ball rolling properly, where we can push for further podiums. I’m happy with our pace and how the CBR is feeling on track, so we need to make sure that we’re working in the right direction across Friday and Saturday, to be strong on race day and bring in more strong results. I’m sure everyone will be pushing hard this weekend, especially if we have dry weather, so with the shorter Indy circuit I think everyone will be getting stuck in, which is exactly what I plan to do! We’re sitting third in the championship at the moment and I don’t want to let that go, so it’s head down and full gas this weekend to work at improving that spot in the standings.”
Jason O’Halloran
“I can’t wait to get going at round two this weekend, it’s nice to have the first round out the way, the conditions weren’t great for anyone, but we came away in one piece and I’m pleased to have grabbed a handful of points to start the season off. I always enjoy Brands Hatch and the Indy circuit is intense and so is the racing there, even though it’s 30 laps, it is the shortest race in distance with no rest; but it’s a race I really enjoy and think the CBR will work well there. Last year we had a decent result, with a top-five and we’re in a much better place this year, so looking forward to seeing what we can do. The score sheets from Donington doesn’t really reflect our speed and where we were over the weekend, so I’m keen to now get to Brands and get some top results.”
Havier Beltran
Team Manager
“Following on from the opening round I feel that we’re in a good position heading into this weekend. Donington Park was really strong for us with Dan scoring a podium and Jason in the top-ten in both races. So it’s all systems go this weekend and hopefully pick up from where we left off and hunt down some more podiums. I really hope the weather is better this weekend as it was less than ideal for everyone at Donington Park! But it should be a good weekend and I’m looking forward to us getting our heads down and pushing towards the front
