JASON O’HALLORAN
Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran has experience of the 8 Hour before and, racing this year for the Honda Dream RT Sakurai squad, managed to maintain a consistent pace to become the fourth Honda team to finish inside the top 10. He was arguably the most experienced of the BSB riders at Suzuka, courtesy of his previous performances with Honda’s World Endurance team.
The O'Show's take...
“To be honest I really like endurance racing. I have done bits and pieces over the last couple of years, filling in for people, or doing the Suzuka 8 Hour and I really enjoy being a part of it. Bike racing in general is less of a team sport, as it’s just you on track against your rivals, whereas Suzuka has much more of a team feel to it. You have three guys in the team and you have got to share a bike with them, which means compromising on things because it’s ultimately about consistency and getting to the end of the race. I really enjoyed the experience and it’s something I would like to do more of in the future, especially the Suzuka 8 Hour as I would like to come back to this event each year and try and keep progressing and moving up the order.
“We had a 10th place as a private team and we have to be happy with that. There is some serious effort that goes into this race with all the manufacturers, so to be a private team, these guys give it their all and so did we. I reckon the whole team’s happy with the result.” Asked what makes Suzuka so difficult, the Aussie said: “The heat is probably the biggest thing in Suzuka. We got lucky with the temperatures on race day this year, as it wasn’t too hot. The temperatures make it really tough, because it exhausts you when you’re riding for so long. It definitely adds another challenge to the event.”