The McAMS Yamaha team got straight to work at Oulton Park as round nine of the Bennetts British Superbike championship commenced. Jason O’Halloran ended the day’s two sessions in sixth whilst Luke Stapleford completed his debut with the team in 15th.

Making the most of the near-perfect conditions, O’Halloran got straight to work as he looked to improve the setting of his R1. Evaluating the feeling from the swingarm, which the team didn’t run in the visit to the Cheshire venue earlier this year, the Australian focussed on completing laps, ending the opening session seventh despite facing a few braking issues.

With a clear direction for the second session, the ‘O’Show’ immediately bettered his time. A change mid-way through the session gave him a bit more feeling, but despite still not at one with his R1, placed himself sixth fastest, just three-tenths adrift of the top time which bodes well for Saturday’s action. O’Halloran’s 1:34.578 sees him qualify directly for the Q2 shootout.

After completing a test day earlier in the month, Luke Stapleford hit the ground running on Friday as he looked to further improve his feeling with what is a new bike for the 32-year-old. A positive showing in the opening practice set the former Supersport race winner up for a productive afternoon and improved his time to a 1:35.767, placing him 15th in the combined times.

Action resumes on Saturday morning with final practice. Qualifying kicks off at 13.10 with lights out for the 12-lap BikeSocial sprint race at 16.15.