A new life has started for Jason O’Halloran. The Australian has been competing in BSB since 2009, but he hasn’t managed to fight for the title yet. In order to finally reach this goal, O’Show has ended an eight-year collaboration with Honda Racing UK to join McAMS Yamaha. It’s not the first time O’Halloran moves from Honda to Yamaha, as he had already done it in Australia. Here’s the story of his career.
JASON FROM WOLLONGONG – Born in Wollongong like WorldSBK legend Troy Corser, O’Halloran was Honda factory rider in 2004 and 2005 Australian Supersport Championship seasons and then he moved to Yamaha Motor Australia in 2006. O’Halloran used his first year as Yamaha rider to fully understand the R6 machine and in 2007 he gave Yamaha one of the many titles they scored in ASBK back then. Honda tried to convince O’Halloran to re-join them, but the Aussie rejected their proposal, as only Europe had place in Jason’s dreaming…
MOVE TO GREAT BRITAIN – In 2009, O’Halloran moved to Great Britain and started racing in British Supersport. After two seasons on private Yamaha and Triumph machines, a call from Honda Racing UK reached O’Halloran and the Australian finally joined the team owned by Neil Tuxworth. 2011 season was the first of the eight seasons spent by O’Halloran with Honda Racing UK, with which he competed in British Supersport, National Superstock 1000 (where he was twice runner-up), again British Supersport and finally BSB, championship he entered in 2015. During those times, O’Halloran also participated in some Moto2 World Championship races (with JiR Team) and in some FIM Endurance World Championship events such as Suzuka 8 Hours.
BAD LUCK – So far O’Halloran has proved to be talented, but also very unlucky, as several injuries prevented him from achieving the highest goals. However, he celebrated his first BSB win in 2016 Snetterton Round and then he provided strong racing also in 2017, despite the difficulties found in developing new Honda CBR 1000RR Fireblade SP2. The year after O’Halloran seemed able to chase 2018 BSB title, but the injury suffered while replacing Leon Camier in Imola World Superbike Round put an end to his dreams of glory.
NEW CHALLENGE – O’Halloran could have spent one more year with Honda Racing UK, but finally he’s decided to join McAMS Yamaha and it seems like R1 perfectly suits his riding style. His very first test with MCAMS Yamaha took place in Almería and there O’Halloran was nearly as fast as his new team-mate Tarran Mackenzie. The Australian seems very optimistic about this new adventure and it seems like he will finally fight for the title. Will he do it? After the trouble he experienced, we really hope he will…
Translated by Alessandro Palma