BSB: Jason O'Halloran reaps rewards after fighting back from broken leg to race into the title Showdown

For many British Superbike teams, nailing down one of the berths in the end-of-season Showdown is reward for a gruelling and, at times, painful exertion throughout the year.

Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran knows that better than most, and has felt both the highs and the bone-shattering lows that come with the territory of superbike racing. This time last year, the Australian was nowhere to be seen, a badly broken leg forcing him to miss the middle of the 2015 season after a high-speed crash at Thruxton.

O’Halloran suffered three separate breaks to his right femur along with two broken bones in his left hand, and saw his Showdown hopes dashed as he underwent two months of rehabilitation before returning in October.

Now though, the story is different. Both O’Halloran and his Honda teammate Dan Linfoot are into the Showdown, where six riders will go for the title after having their points totals reset to 500 for the final three rounds of the season. O’Halloran – with 513 points putting him in third and a maiden win at Snetterton this year under his belt – is adamant that going through the right rehab has paved the way for his success this season.

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“We’ve had a great year, I’ve come back from a major injury last year and to get back to the point that we’re at now is really satisfying,” O’Halloran tells The Independent. “Myself and my teammate Dan both made it through to the Showdown which is great for the team, the whole team put a massive effort in and to have two riders in there is fantastic for Honda. We’ve both been competitive all year, I feel like we’re getting stronger and stronger as the season goes on and I feel good ahead of the Showdown run.”

The 28-year-old, who hails from the city of Wollongong on the Pacific coast, saw a potential second win of the season snatched from his grasp last weekend at Oulton Park when a gearbox issue forced him out of the race while battling for the lead, but he was quick to take the positive from the mechanical failure.

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Had the problem struck him this weekend at Donington Park, O’Halloran stood to lose as many as 25 points to his Showdown rivals – Leon Haslam, Shane Byrne, Luke Mossey, James Ellison and Linfoot – but instead he conceded just five podium credits to championship leader Haslam.

“Oulton Park was good, it sort of didn’t live up to expectations, in that we had a lot more potential than we showed,” he explains. “We had pace in all three races but it didn’t quite come together for us. We qualified on pole position for race three, we were leading the race, whenever someone got past we would fire straight back and I felt really comfortable and felt we could have won that race.

“Unfortunately we had a small technical problem but this is racing and these things happen, you’ve got to take it on the chin, move forward as a team and try to evaluate the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen in the next couple of races.

“Although we lost some podium credits we didn’t lose a big chunk of points on our main rivals. Leon got five podium credits in that race whereas going forward it would have been 25 points on us. It’s better to happen last weekend and get it out of the way and turn up for Donington with everything fresh, whatever part it was that broke, make sure we get on top of that and go forward strongly.”

The result is that O’Halloran starts the seven-race Showdown more than a race victory behind both Haslam and Byrne in the standings, but he refuses to rule out his chances by any means with 25 points available in each of the remaining races.

“33 points behind Leon, 30 behind Shakey,” continues O’Halloran, “that still puts us in the championship. We’re not out of it yet. There’s seven races, anything can happen, the weather will be changeable over the next few rounds in getting cooler and maybe some more rain. We’re ready for all the conditions, we’re ready to fight and we’re in the Showdown now. We’ve got to stand up and take it to them and see what we can do.

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But the leg injury he suffered when sliding off at Nobles could have left things in a very different state, given he was not able to walk after undergoing surgery on his right leg. A long and carefully planned rehabilitation followed, and O’Halloran returned before the end of the season in order to hit the track running at the start of the 2016 campaign.

“It was very difficult. We came back from injury at the start of October last year with a lot of work, Andrew Pitt helped me a lot with that,” he says. “I’ve had some great physios working with me, and we’ve put the hours in to get back to where we need to be. We built into the year, started strongly and kept making steps forward and I felt really comfortable since getting back onto the bike in January having been hurt last August, and it was a long process.

“Just general rehab, physio, normal training, pool sessions, everything that it takes to get back. It was a slow start to what I could do as first of all it was in the pool, then it was physio sessions, then it was back in the gym. It was a long process, but the process that we did was correct, we took it step-by-step and took it slowly, and did a good job with it and have the results to show for it now.

“It was fine from the start [of the year]. I just had to ease back into motorbike riding and racing. It was hard being away from the race track for so long, but we did the right process and took the right steps to come back strong at the very first round.”

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The result is that O’Halloran starts this weekend in his very first Showdown, and has a chance at a maiden BSB championship if he can find a way to overhaul both Haslam and Byrne as well as fend off the chasing contenders. However, he believes the odds are in his favour, given his excitement at heading to Donington, Brands Hatch and his personal favourite Assen in the Netherlands.

“I’m really looking forward to Assen, I’ve only raced at Assen once before but we had a couple of podiums there on the Supersport bike,” O’Halloran says. “I really love the circuit and it suits my style, I can’t wait to get back and race the Superbike there, but saying that we were strong at Brands earlier in the year, we had a podium there, almost won the race. Donington’s been good to me in the past as well so all three circuits will be strong for us, I think it will suit the Fireblade, I think it will suit my riding style and I think we can really challenge at the front.

His progress was halted slightly in practice on Friday after enduring three crashes in changeable conditions, although he was joined in going down the road by both Haslam and Byrne as the riders attempted to cope with the wet conditions sweeping across Britain to signal the end of the recent heatwave.

But there’s another issue in the back of O’Halloran’s mind in the form of 2017, and with no deal yet on the table, he confirmed that there is something in the pipeline that should be announced in the coming weeks.

He says: “No, no plans for next season yet. Obviously talks are ongoing now. It’s that time of year, a hard time of the year to negotiate your contract for next year. We’ve had a strong season, everything’s gone to plan and hopefully I can confirm my new plans in the next few weeks.”