Thruxton BSB: Mackenzie claims final victory

McAMS Yamaha’s Tarran Mackenzie got the verdict in the final Bennetts British Superbike Championship race of the day at Thruxton on Sunday afternoon but it was close with just 0.019s separating him from Rich Energy OMG Yamaha’s Bradley Ray. Championship leader Jason O’Halloran took third on the second McAMS machine.

Mackenzie got the holeshot from OMG teammates Ray and Kyle Ryde and they led O’Halloran, and Cheshire Mouldings FS-3 Kawasaki pair Lee Jackson and Rory Skinner over the line at the end of the opening lap. Further back, Dean Harrison (DAO Racing Kawasaki) crashed out at the chicane after tangling with Josh Brookes and Ryan Vickers. O’Halloran moved up to third second time around with Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW) overhauling both Jackson and Skinner to go fifth but Danny Buchan was out and toured back to the pits on the Synetiq BMW. He was soon followed out of the race by Brookes, the MCE Ducati pulling off the track on lap four. Back at the front and by lap five, Mackenzie led Ray by two tenths of a second with O’Halloran another half second back and, just like the opening race of the day, Hickman was doing his utmost to go with the Yamaha trio. Ryde was now in fifth ahead of Jackson and Tom Sykes on the sole surviving MCE Ducati but the latter two swapped positions at the start of lap seven. Ryde was the next to drop out, crashing out at Cobb, and the front four were separated by a second as they started the eighth lap, Sykes two seconds in arrears in fifth but having his best showing of the 2022 season so far. He dropped back to sixth on lap nine with Haslam getting ahead of him at the chicane but there were now eight riders battling for fifth and positions were changing all the time. As the race reached