Oulton Park BSB Race 1 Results | Jason O'Halloran opens season with Oulton win

Jason O’Halloran opened up his 2021 British Superbike Championship campaign in fine style with a formidable victory in the opening round of the season at Oulton Park.

The experienced Australian, a double race winner at Oulton Park during last season’s compacted schedule, comes into the 2021 BSB season as one of the title favourites after a career-best run to second overall in 2020.

However, he - or rather, his McAMS Yamaha team - were made to work hard for glory after technical issues in qualifying forced an engine change on his R1 before the race.

Despite this he was quickly up to speed from the start, pushing up from fourth to second place at Turn 1 behind early leader Christian Iddon, with both riders getting the jump on pole man Tommy Bridewell.

A sober start to the season - delayed to June in an effort to ensure spectators could attend - in terms of action, the front five riders would break away from the pack before the top three began circulating in unison.

Iddon held the lead until O’Halloran dived for the inside on Lap 8 of 14, with the Australian easing out the winner from the VisionTrack Ducati rider and Bridewell.

Behind them, Peter Hickman gave the new FHO Racing BMW team a fine BSB debut with a run to fourth position, getting ahead of Tarran Mackenzie on the second McAMS Yamaha when the Scotsman made a mistake at the chicane. 

Glenn Irwin - a winner on the Honda CBR1000RR-R’s debut a year ago - had a muted start to the season with a run to sixth place, ahead of Kyle Ryde on his debut for OMG Racing BMW and Lee Jackson, who made good gains on the FS-3 Kawasaki for eighth. 

Ryan Vickers and defending champion Josh Brookes rounded out the top ten, the experienced Australian out-of-sorts having qualified down the order before making little impression on race proceedings. 

Gino Rea, Danny Buchan, rookie Rory Skinner, Dean Harrison and Bjorn Estment completed the points’ paying positions.

2021 British Superbike Championship (BSB) RACE 1 RESULTS | Oulton Park