Beltran: Great to see Honda back at the sharp end

Honda Racing team manager Havier Beltran has spoken of his pride at seeing his squad back at the top in the MCE British Superbike championship after Jason O'Halloran claimed a maiden race win while Dan Linfoot continued his rostrum run.

O'Halloran became the first Honda-powered rider to win a BSB race since Peter Hickman on the RAF Reserves Honda at Cadwell Park in 2014.

After the Australian pipped his Honda team-mate Linfoot to the maiden race win it secured Honda's first 1-2 in BSB for almost six years, the last coming at Oulton Park in 2010 when Ryuichi Kiyonari led home Josh Brookes to claim the championship title.

Having been consistently up the sharp-end this year, Beltran is thrilled to see Linfoot and O'Halloran make the big step forward at Snetterton and deliver winning results n the ageing but fast Fireblade.

"What a result for Honda Racing, it's just incredible what both Jason and Dan have done," Beltran said. "I'm so pleased for both of them and know deep down Dan isn't happy finishing second in race one, but in a way I'm pleased he feels that way and wanted that win.

"Jason rode a great race and the pair of them were just unbelievable leading the pack and at one point had a ten-second lead, so an incredible first race and hats off to both of them.

"The second race again saw Jason get duffed up on a few corners and settled into fifth with a good battle going on for third. Dan had a good run with Shakey too; he dropped a few tenths at one point but got those back and was there with him until the race was unfortunately red flagged."

The only dampener on Honda Racing's Snetterton weekend was Jenny Tinmouth failing to finish either race and her huge crash in race two causing the early red flag stoppage.

"Jenny had a big off, but thankfully she is fine and unhurt, but I need to have a look at that and understand what happened, I know she lost the front on the brakes; it's frustrating as she's trying so hard," he said. "But overall a fantastic weekend for Honda Racing, Dan and Jason, and it's great to see the Fireblades back at the sharp end."

Both O'Halloran and Linfoot have launched into the top six BSB Showdown spots thanks to their results at the Norfolk track and sit in third and fourth respectively.