No Party in the Park for McAMS Yamaha at Cadwell
The ‘Party in the Park’ didn’t quite live up to its name for the McAMS Yamaha team, who endured a challenging weekend at Cadwell Park to bring an end to a run of 12 consecutive podium finishes.
Jason O’Halloran’s fourth place in Sunday’s opening race would be the strongest result of the weekend as the Aussie suffered with mysterious tyre degradation in Monday’s two races, finishing eighth and ninth.
Starting from the front row of the grid in the second race, he initially took an early lead and looked to have the same pace as the front runners but as the race went on, he lost all grip quite suddenly and began to pull back through the pack. Despite some changes to the bike, Race 3 saw a repeat of the same occurrence, a strong start followed by a sudden lack of grip seeing him fall through the field.
Team-mate Tarran Mackenzie leaves Cadwell relatively buoyant. Not shy to admit the Lincolnshire venue is not one of his favourite tracks, the reigning British Champion matched his 11th place from race one in the second outing and tenth in race two, posting competitive lap times throughout to show a marked improvement at the notoriously tricky circuit.
Despite the tough weekend, while O’Halloran relinquishes the overall series lead to Yamaha rival Bradley Ray, he still leads on the vital podium points for the showdown with two more than the OMG Yamaha rider. Mackenzie remains seventh in the championship eight points ahead of Kyle Ryde in eighth so is hopeful of securing his Showdown position at Snetterton in two weeks time.
It was a tough weekend for Lincolnshire’s Tim Neave too, taking 11th on the Edwards 1902 Yamaha in the National Superstock class after running off track while fighting for fifth position.
The team will now look to regroup ahead of Round 8 of the championship in Norfolk in two weeks’ time.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Cadwell Park, Race 2 result:
- Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW)
- Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +0.815s
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +3.129s
- Leon Haslam (VisionTrack Kawasaki) +1 lap
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Racing Kawasaki) +1 lap
- Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +1 lap
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +1 lap
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +1 lap
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing UK) +1 lap
- Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati) +1 lap
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +1 lap
Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Cadwell Park, Race 3 result:
- Danny Buchan (SYNETIQ BMW)
- Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) +1.864s
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) +3.628s
- Leon Haslam (VisionTrack Kawasaki) +11.854s
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki) +11.999s
- Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) +12.362s
- Andrew Irwin (SYNETIQ BMW) +13.023s
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing UK) +13.928s
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) +14.773s
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) +14.962s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings:
- Bradley Ray (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) 372
- Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) 359
- Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki) – 241
- Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki) 225
- Glenn Irwin (Honda Racing UK) 214
- Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 201
- Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) 186
- Kyle Ryde (Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha) 178
Credit to McAMS