As well as testing the British Supersport 600cc machines, Gary Johnson has also been putting the Fireblade through its paces for his assault on the International Road Race calendar in 2011.

Testing took place over three days at Cartegena but was restricted to just one day at Guadix, where bad weather forced the team to abandon their second day at the circuit and head back to base.

Gary Johnson said, “All in all I’m really pleased with the test and how productive it was for us all. I was riding the 600 and the Superbike and getting both bikes set up to a comfy base setting, which we’ll be working on in more tests before the season starts. I know now where we need to go with the bikes and confident the team will get them to that position where everything will be perfect come the start of the season.

“We concentrated mainly on the 600 as this is the bike I will be running in the British Supersport Championship, from the off the bike felt great. We changed a number of things on the Honda with springs, suspension and tyres to see which worked best for me. We have definitely got something to work from now and going in the right direction.

“I did a few runs out on the Superbike, the Fireblade is an awesome bike and the power is immense on it. My times improved every time we made small changes which is great news and I feel confident about everything now.

“I was happy at the end of Cartagena and was looking forward to getting myself out at Guadix. My crew chief James made a few changes after I’d done a few initial laps and these automatically took my times down on the 600, it’s all a learning curve for all of us and testing is all about finding the right set up.

“I jumped back on the Fireblade and was testing a new Pirelli tyre which I’ll be using on the roads but this forced us to make some changes with the bike. I was able to stay with the Suzuki riders of Kirkham and Hopkins so it gave me a lot of confidence. The second planned day at Guadix, the heavens opened and track activity was called off for the day so homeward bound we headed. I’m really happy with the progress we made and I know where we have to go but I’m very excited about it all. I can’t wait for the season to start now and get things going again.”

The young Irish rider Lee Johnston bonded with the new Honda immediately and ending testing feeling positive with his performance, saying;

“Testing was mega at Cartagena, the weather was kind to us and stayed dry for the three days, even though it was a little on the windy side. We spent the majority of the first day just making me comfortable on the CBR 600 as this was the first time I’d even sat on the bike. It felt good instantly so I knew we wouldn’t need to change much on it. We knew the bikes were good as Sam won the Championship on it in 2010 so we didn’t want to change much to start with.

“The second day proved to be challenging as there were a number of crashes which kept putting halt to proceedings and the third day we spent working on the forks and my times were coming down each time I went out on track which has given me my confidence back after a couple of dodgy years.

“We then headed to Guadix where I managed to complete 70 laps on the first afternoon and I managed to get a really good feel for the bike. The second day they weather turned a little more like what I’m used to back in Ireland, the track was flooded and therefore the day was cancelled. I would like to thank all the East Coast Racing team for making me feel so welcome and working so hard over the few days, I just can’t wait for Brands now.”

2011 British Supersport Dates

Rd 1 – 22 – 25th April
Brands Hatch Indy

Rd 2 – 30th April – 2nd May
Oulton Park

Rd 3 – 13th – 15th May
Croft Race Circuit

Rd 4 – 28th – 30th May
Thruxton

Rd 5 – 17th – 19th June
Knockhill

Rd 6 – 1st – 3rd July
Snetterton

Rd 7 – 15th – 17th July
Oulton Park

Rd 8 – 5th – 7th August
Brands Hatch GP

Rd 9 – 27th – 29th August
Cadwell Park

Rd 10 – 9th – 11th September
Donington Park

Rd 11 – 23rd – 25th September
Silverstone Arena GP

Rd 12 – 7th – 9th October
Brands Hatch GP

International Road Racing Dates

North West 200 – 21st May

Isle of Man TT – 30th May – 10th June

Ulster GP – 10th – 13th August

Scarborough Gold Cup – 17th – 18th September

Macau GP – 17th – 20th November

Jason O'Halloran

Jason O’Halloran finally lived up to his promise with his first podium place of the season at Silverstone last weekend in the penultimate round of the British Supersport Championship.

The East Coast Racing Yamaha rider started the race in tenth place on the grid, but a good start to the race from O’Halloran was to no avail as the race was stopped after a big crash on the first corner.

Team mate Pat McDougall was caught up in the incident, hitting a fallen bike and injuring his foot in the process making it an awful weekend for him.

When the race was re-started it was reduced to just an eight laps and O’Halloran made an awesome start, settling into fourth place with some blistering lap times.

Having caught Ben Wilson and James Westmoreland, who were swapping places in an exciting race for second place, O’Halloran watched on as Wilson lost the front end of his bike on lap seven and the Australian grasped the podium opportunity with both hands.

A delighted Jason O’Halloran said

“Finally the podium I’ve been looking for all season. It’s been a hard weekend with a few ups and downs but the end result was ideal! I’m just chuffed to bits for all the team and myself, but the team have worked so hard since I joined them mid season at Mallory Park and we’ve been working for this ever since. The weather conditions certainly weren’t ideal but hopefully things will carry on like this for Oulton and I can get myself another good result there. I just like to thank everyone involved who have supported me this year and I couldn’t have done it without them!”

The third place result at Silverstone moves O’Halloran into seventh place overall in the British Supersport Championship.

jason o'halloran

The Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship rider Jason O’Halloran crashed out of the Oulton Park qualifying session in the final minutes, attempting to improve on his provisional tenth place on the grid, resulting in a splintered collarbone for the Triumph rider.

The young Australian had been working hard throughout the weekend at one of his favourite circuits but struggled to find a good set up on the Triumph 675 throughout the practice and qualifying sessions.

Having fought with the bike to put himself in tenth on the grid, O’Halloran was attempting to squeeze a bit more from his machine when he had a huge, fast crash at Cascades, effectively ending his weekend .

After a close inspection by the track doctors he was diagnosed with a splintered left collarbone, and he will  see a specialist on Tuesday and then the next steps will be taken to see if he requires surgery or not, in the hope to be back out on the Oxford Tag Triumph at Cadwell Park on the 22nd May.

Commenting he said “I’m really disappointed about hurting myself this weekend. It had been a tough weekend and we were struggling to find a set up that worked well for me here at Oulton. We had just made a bit of progress in the second qualifying session when I had a massive crash. Once I stopped rolling I thought I was ok but then the adrenalin wore off and knew I’d hurt my shoulder somehow. I’m just gutted as I really wanted a good result here. I’ve not many weeks before Cadwell so I have to try and get myself fully fit again by then, just sorry for all the team and hope things take a turn for the better soon!”

Dan Cooper - MAP Centurion Triumph Team

Last weekend saw the second round of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship take place at the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire.

It was however, a tough outing for the MAP Centurion Triumph team with the rider Dan Cooper failing to make it to the grid after developing an electrical problem on his bike while his team-mate AJ Ventor struggled to finish in fourteenth place.

The pair worked hard throughout the weekend to find a suitable set up at the ultra fast and super bumpy Thruxton circuit. Working around problems and altering set up the two Supersport riders still encountered issues. Dan Cooper was unfortunate in the second qualifying and suffered a clutch problem which forced him to miss the entire session and putting him in a low 18^th place on the grid. Whilst AJ Venter was finding it hard to get to grips with the track and had some problems with the suspension and shock set up, this eventually put him in 16^th place on the grid.

Cooper managed to make the sighting lap but then suffered with a starter motor failure on the grid before the start of the warm up lap, which forced him out of the race before it even started. AJ got a reasonable start but only managed to gain one position at the end of the opening lap and despite his efforts to make progress through the field could only manage to get 14^th at the end of the race.

Cooper commented;

“I’m totally gutted about this weekend it just didn’t seem to want to work in my favour. It seems to be a track that I’ve never gelled with and for some reason that bad luck continued this weekend. I went out of pit lane fine for the sighting lap and then when it came to the warm up lap it wouldn’t go, just gutted. I hope things will be back to normal at Oulton and that I can get some good points there.”

AJ said;

“It’s not been a great weekend for me, I could not get the suspension right in any session and I just felt like I was riding on a pogo stick. We tried so much to try and work round it and make it better but nothing seemed to click and gel and I just can’t wait to get away from here and to Oulton in a few weeks. It’s definitely been a tough one for the team and we all just need to put this one behind us and move forwards with the rest of the season.”