Image: Supplied.

McAMS Yamaha racer Jason O’Halloran anticipated the Snetterton round of the 2023 British Superbike Championship (BSB) to be challenging, but was able to grab a pole position and podium despite feeling as if he couldn’t do anything more in a race situation.

O’Halloran stormed to pole on Saturday with a 1m47.111s, two-tenths faster than second-placed Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati) before notching a P3 result in the sprint race later that day.

The Australian led the way for the first eight laps of race two before a red flag came out, and in the restarted outing he was shuffled back. Still in the podium fight, a block pass from Irwin at the end of the back straight saw him lose momentum and cross the line P5.

In the final outing, O’Halloran was boxed in at the first turn and was relegated to eighth on the opening lap, and finding it challenging to overtake the group he took the chequered flag in P6.

“It’s been a good weekend and I feel like I’m riding really well and I’m happy enough but I’m disappointed as I don’t feel like I can do any more than I’m doing in the race situation, which is frustrating,” O’Halloran said.

“We knew this round was going to be difficult so to pick up a podium and qualify on pole is good, so we can move on from here and look forward to Brands Hatch.”

McAMS Yamaha team principal Steve Rodgers added: “We knew the speed of the Ducati and BMW could be a problem here but Jason put up a really good fight, especially in the second race where he was doing really well to lead in the first part and in the restart he managed to hold off Glenn almost all the way and was riding in a really intelligent way to negate the speed differential.”

Of other Australians on the podium at Brands Hatch, Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW) notched a pair of seconds in the sprint race and race two. Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) finished third in Supersport race one as Billy McConnell (C&L Fairburn Properties Jackson Racing) scored a third-place result in National Superstock.

The British Superbike Championship (BSB) resumes on 21-23 July with round six of the 2023 season taking place at Brands Hatch.