Shane Byrne - Brands Hatch 2008

Kent based rider Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne will rejoin the British Superbike grid for 2011 with this years championship winning team of HM Plant Honda.

The former double BSB champion Byrne will line up alongside three time winner and current 2010 champion Ryuichi Kiyonari as the HM Plant team bid to win a record breaking fourth BSB title.

Byrne replaces Josh Brookes at Honda as the Australian heads off to Relentless Suzuki and the English rider admits that there is nothing more he would like to achieve than to become the most successful rider in BSB history.

That made his choice of teams for this year a relatively simple affair as the rider admits that the two teams who were constantly winning when he last raced in the series are GSE Racing and HM Plant, ‘GSE had gone so Honda was my logical choice’ said Byrne.

Well aware that he has not won a race in the two years he has been away from British Superbile, Byrne is anxious to make amends this coming season in what promises to be the strongest team that HM Plant Honda have ever had.

But ‘Shakey’ is not simply there to make up the numbers, the rider he replaces was runner up in 2010 and the team will be expecting the same or better from Byrne, who will be among the most experienced riders on the grid.

Fans favourite Byrne is already looking forward to the start of the 2011 season when he will make a welcome return to his ‘home track’ at Brands Hatch for the first race of the year where he will enjoy an incredible welcome back to the series.

Meanwhile Australian Jason O ‘Halloran has been rewarded for his change of fortune in the final races of this season by being signed up for the HM Plant Honda National Superstock team for next season.

O’Halloran feels that after being pushed from pillar to post since arriving in the UK he will at last be joining a top quality team and described his signing as ‘a great opportunity.’

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.

The long awaited British summer turned up with a vengeance at round four of the championship at Cadwell Park, making for an even more uncomfortable ride for O’Halloran, who has never raced at the demanding circuit before.

The Triumph team fitted a new shock on Saturday evening and went back to the original settings from Friday and this produced a good race set up for morning warm up. After a couple of tough qualifying sessions Jason managed to put the 675 Triumph on the fifth row in 15th place. Gaining one position after the opening lap Jason soon settled into a good rhythm and pace and was producing some very consistent lap time.

He was soon locked in a battle with AJ Venter, Dan Cooper and Joe Dickinson for eighth place and was having to fight every lap to hold off the battling pair behind him. Swapping positions for at least 10 of the 16 lap race Jason was eager to gain a top ten finish after missing Oulton Park through injury. He finally crossed the line in a strong tenth place after passing Dan Cooper on the final lap.

O’Halloran was pleased with the reult under the difficult circumstances and said after the race:

“It’s been a very long and difficult weekend so to come out of it with a tenth place I’m pleased with. Having never ridden here before I had my work cut out with getting the bike right and still feeling quite sore in my shoulder and wrist, I was determined to finish with a decent result and move on and be fully fit for Mallory. We made a load of changes with the bike and didn’t seem to get any further forward, the team changed the shock and we started again and it felt good in the race and I felt a lot more comfortable. At least we have a good setting for when we come here in August. I’m going to be training hard over the next month and be fully prepared and fit for Mallory at the end of June.”

Next race: Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport 600cc Round 5 Mallory Park 25th – 26th – 27th June

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!”

Jason O'Halloran - SMT Honda 2009

The SMT Honda team, to be known as Sorrymate.com/SMT Honda for 2010, have signed the nine-times British Supermoto champion Christian Iddon to head their campaign for the coming season.

The team suffered a dismal 2009 season after suffering problems amid the economic crisis towards the second half of the year.  They began the opening rounds with the Australian rider Jason O’Halloran, and returned at the Mallory Park round with Michael Rutter aboard.  Later with the backing of Sorrymate.com, they managed to complete the final two rounds with Karl Harris riding and have now agreed to back the team for the year ahead.

Robin Croft said;

“With regard to rider choice, we had spoke at length to a number of senior riders in the series but each of those had their own problems.  Christian had ridden with us a few times before and considering his lack of experience he surpassed all expectations. With that in mind and with the blessing of Sorrymate.com we decided to take that route

Certainly at the beginning of the season we know things might be difficult as Christian learns to ride a Superbike but later on in the season we really believe we can be in a great position to take some good results. With Christian on the bike we also get to develop younger, fresh talent which is something as a team we have always tried to do.”

SMT Honda 2009

The SMT Honda team are to be back on the grid for the final two rounds of the 2009 British Superbike Championship with Karl Harris, after securing sponsorship from sorrymate.com.

The team were forced to miss the last three rounds of the season at Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park and Croft due to the economic crisis.

As original team rider Jason O’Halloran is out of contention after suffering a broken wrist in practice at the Croft circuit and with Karl Harris having recently lost his ride with the Hydrex Honda team, he seemed the ideal solution.

Robin Croft said;

“We’re all absolutely delighted to be back on the British Superbike grid and are indebted to Fergus Dalgarno and sorrymate.com for their financial support which has allowed us to return. It’s been hard work since our last outing at Mallory Park and we’ve explored a number of avenues to continue competing but it’s only now that we have the solid financial footing to do so. As for Karl, he knows the bike inside out and what we’ve been running all year is very similar to the bike he was riding at Hydrex Honda – we’ve had on-going support during the year from Shaun Muir and Mick Shanley and Karl’s desperate to get back on a Honda so it’s a hungry team and a hungry rider that will be heading to Silverstone. We ‘re all itching to get back and are planning to end the season with a flourish.”