The Honda Racing team is looking forward to making amends this Bank Holiday Easter weekend (14-17 April), as the second round of the MCE British Superbike Championship takes place at Brands Hatch. 

Putting the issues from the opening round at Donington Park behind them, the clear objective for the weekend is to be in the top-ten and closer to the front of the pack, aboard the all-new Fireblade. 

Dan Linfoot and Jason O’Halloran have enjoyed some test days aboard their race machines in a quest to iron out the struggles they experienced at the opening round. With progress made whilst testing this week, both riders are quietly confident with the steps made and have some renewed confidence and top-ten finishes firmly in their sights. 

Although it seemed like a frustrating first round from the outside, both O’Halloran and Linfoot are sitting in the top-ten overall standings and it’s only a matter of time before they make their way up towards the front of the pack.

Dan Linfoot #4: 

I’m looking forward to Brands Hatch this weekend and hoping to make a good step forward from the issues we had a Donington; to be nearer to where we should be. I was a little frustrated after the opening round because they were two poor results, but we’ve had a couple of afternoons testing and we’ve improved the throttle feeling, so I can ride the Fireblade more to my style. The objective for this weekend at Brands is to make a big step forward and challenge for the positions that we should be.

Jason O’Halloran #22:

I’m looking forward to the weekend as Donington was a little bit of a frustrating round for us, as we were trying to get the correct feeling that we were looking for with the bike. We came home with two tenth place finishes, which is not really where we want to be, but we got a lot of data and we got two races under our belt. We’ve managed to get some good test days in and this weeks test was probably the best day we’ve had on the all-new Fireblade this year. I feel ready to go racing now, to turn up this weekend, get back in the mix and get back up the sharp end.

Havier Beltran, team manager:

After a hectic week following Donington we believe we have made some significant steps forward. Both Dan and Jason are now starting to feel more at home and comfortable with their machines and I feel we can now start moving forward, and hopefully putting the issues we had behind us. We always knew it was going to be difficult getting up to speed; both riders have been constructive with their feedback and above all have the motivation to succeed. I want to thank all the team for all their hard work and effort they have put in so far, the new machines have so much potential and we’re so close to unlocking this.

Brands Hatch Indy - Event Schedule 

Friday 14 April
1605 – 1720 Official Test

Saturday 15 April
1105 – 1150 – FP1
1520 – 1605 – FP2

Sunday 16 April
1045 – 1130 – FP3
1432 – 1450 – Q1
1457 – 1509 – Q2
1516 – 1524 – Q3

Monday 17 April
0940 – 0955 – Warm up
1330 – Race one (30 laps 58.32km)
1630 – Race two (30 laps 58.32km)