Source: Supplied.

The Donington Park round of the 2016 British Superbike Championship saw Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran finish third in one race and crash in the other to open the Showdown season.

O’Halloran had a great start to the first race and found himself sixth in the first corner. He was quick to move further up the field into fourth aboard his CBR1000RR, before closing the gap to James Ellison.

After chasing him down for most of the 20-lap race, O’Halloran made the move with three laps to go. Lapping faster, he was able to maintain his hold on third and make the trip to the race one podium.

Unfortunately the Aussie was unable to repeat the performance in the second race due to a first lap incident. After making a good start O’Halloran was boxed in and tagged by another rider, which resulted in a crash that saw him unable to finish.

“I’m really happy with the first race, as we got the podium coming from a long way back on the grid,” O’Halloran said. “I felt like we had good pace, I felt comfortable and thought we could have a better race in race two.

“I’m happy that I managed to get away in race one and I had a big gap to Ellison in third, but I managed to keep chipping away, to get to him and grab the podium.

“Unfortunately I got taken out in the second race on the first lap. The Showdown system is great, but it’s really hurt us today.

“I’ve been third in the championship for half the year, but because of today I’m back down to fifth. It’s going to be tough now, but we’re just going to have to put our head down and see what we can do in the next one.”

The result sees O’Halloran demoted from third to fifth in the championship standings as a result of the Showdown process, however he’s still just 11 points outside of an overall podium.