Australian contender to join youthful talent Mackenzie next season.
McAms Yamaha has revealed the signing of Australian Jason O’Halloran for the 2019 Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB), confirming the number 22 will depart Honda Racing after a number of years at the outfit.
Following a 2018 season marred with injury, O’Halloran essentially fulfils the position vacated by countryman Josh Brookes, who’s signed with Be Wiser Ducati, and will line-up alongside Tarran Mackenzie next year.
“It’s a new chapter and its really exciting to be joining a new team and manufacturer after a long time in the same place,” said O’Halloran. “I have big aims and know I’ve got loads more to prove, people haven’t seen the best of me yet. The bike is a proven race winner and the team has great pedigree, so I believe we have the ingredients to fight for wins.
“I’ve followed the R1 plenty and it seems like you need to be smooth and hold good corner speed, things I really think I can work with. Taz has some great experience on the bike now, so it will be good to be able to hook into information too.”
Team manager Grant Bunting expressed his excitement of signing the competitive duo, and his anticipating a strong start to 2019 after logging important data throughout this season.
“We had a strong year in BSB and learnt a lot about ourselves and the YZF-R1,” Bunting commented. “So we can hit the ground running this season, with two cracking signings! Tarran exceeded all our expectations this year and we were really keen to keep him.
“He has good experience now and we want to help him make the next step up to be able to regularly win races, which we passionately believe he can do. Jason is a really interesting signing for us and we will give him the tools to get the job done and remind people why he is a BSB winner, after a tough injury hit year.”