Elliott awarded shock win as Mackenzie penalised for team-mate clash

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Josh Elliott and OMG Suzuki have been awarded a shock maiden victory in the Bennetts British Superbike Championship after first-across-the-line Tarran Mackenzie was penalised for his clash with McAMS Yamaha team-mate Jason O'Halloran on the final corner of the final lap.

O’Halloran led from the first corner but was coming under increasing pressure from Mackenzie in the closing stages, leading to an attempt by the youngster to slip up the inside at Luffield in sight of the chequered flag.

However, while Mackenzie was able to get directly alongside O’Halloran, the pair made enough contact to cause the latter to slide out into the gravel trap and out of the race.

Initially leaving a sheepish and apologetic Mackenzie to complete his first BSB win, race direction nevertheless instigated the new 'long lap' punishment in retrospect, resulting in an equivalent three second penalty for the Scot enough to demote him behind Josh Elliot, who in turn claims a maiden victory for both himself and OMG Suzuki.

O’Halloran had ridden a text-book race up to the last corner, getting the hole-shot over his pole-sitting counterpart and controlling the pace thereafter in what looked like a lights-to-flag run to his first win since 2016.

Indeed, though Mackenzie ran close O’Halloran close throughout, the Scot spent three-quarters of the race contending with the close attentions of Elliot as well, the 2015 Superstock 1000 champion putting in an inspired performance to keep the McAMS pair honest.

However, when Elliott faded in the closing stages, it freed Mackenzie up to launch an assault on O’Halloran, leading to an attempt to pass initially at Brooklands, before the youngster cut back up the inside at Luffield for what would be an ultimately ill-fated move. With Mackenzie on the cusp of the inside kerb and O’Halloran leaning in, contact was inevitable as the front-end of O’Halloran’s machine washed out to send him sliding into the gravel trap.

With Mackenzie surviving the brush, he was left to complete what was expected to be a long-awaited – if ignominious – first BSB triumph for the son of former champion Niall Mackenzie.

However, race direction deemed the collision deserving of a penalty, adding three seconds to Mackenzie’s race time to pile further frustration onto the McAMS Yamaha team, who been so close to a 1-2 result.

It meant Elliott came away as the unexpected winner of the 2019 opener, rewarding OMG Suzuki for promoting him from its Superstock line-up to secure a landmark success at the start of only its second season in BSB.

Behind the demoted Mackenzie, Scott Redding notched up a somewhat fortuitous podium in third, the ex-MotoGP rider seemingly heading for a lonely fourth place finish prior to the final corner skirmish in a solid, if unspectacular debut race outing for the Ducati V4. Even so, he fared better than Josh Brookes who, after starting 18thbecause of technical issues in qualifying, was forced to retire with more gremlins whilst running eighth.

Luke Mossey consolidated OMG Suzuki’s memorable race with a run to fourth, the team newcomer showing impressive speed after a poor start, while Tommy Bridewell was another to look strong coming up the order after a slow getaway in fifth.

After a disappointing qualifying performance, Andrew Irwin gave Honda reason to be encouraged with his strong run to sixth position, ahead of Luke Stapleford on the best of the Buildbase Suzukis and Team WD-40’s Claudio Corti, who was the highest-placed Kawasaki rider in eighth.

Danny Buchan survived an early off to come back into contention in ninth, ahead of Xavi Fores and Christian Iddon, the latter fighting doggedly on the all-new under-development BMW S1000RR.

Dan Linfoot struggled to stay with the pace as he slipped from a starting spot of sixth to finish 13th, with Peter Hickman and Keith Farmer completing the points’ paying positions.

Elsewhere, defending champions Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki endured a dismal opener with Glenn Irwin and Ben Currie crashing at the same corner on the same lap, albeit in two different incidents.