Source: Supplied.

Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran carded a couple of 10th-place finishes at Donington Park’s opening round of the 2017 British Superbike Championship, still getting to grips with the intricacies of the updated CBR1000RR.

O’Halloran went 10-10 on Sunday in a respectable start to his campaign, bagging a decent amount of points in the process, but there’s still a lot of work to do before he can challenge for podiums and potential victories again.

“Well that’s the first race weekend out the way and, although it probably looks on the outside that we’re struggling, we’re really making progress and everyone is still learning with the new Fireblade,” O’Halloran reflected. “Race one was a huge learning curve for us and the 20 laps were the longest run I’ve had on the new bike. The boys have been working hard trying to improve the power and engine braking – for race one it felt a lot better and I was happy with 10th.

“Race two, although was the same result it was a positive outcome for us. I lost a lot of time in the start, but I got my head down and pushed hard to make up places. For the rest of the race there was a big improvement and the times were half a second faster per lap than race one! The CBR felt more comfortable and I was able to push, which I hadn’t felt was possible before. We have a light at the end of the tunnel and I think with another step like today, we can probably move up into fifth/sixth position. There is more work to do, but I am feeling a little more confident.”

With O’Halloran eighth in the standings, the official Honda team will now look at the data collected from the weekend and will start working on the Fireblades in preparation for the next round of the championship, which takes place at Brands Hatch on 15-17 April.