
By Roy Harris, Belfast Telegraph
Michael Dunlop made his first outing since the Daytona 200 in March as testing for the 2021 British Superbike season continued yesterday with a one-day event at Oulton Park.
He lined up at the Cheshire circuit with the regular Superbike riders on board a D.C. Racing BMW, and in front of spectators who were allowed in to watch the action.
After three 35-minute sessions, the fastest rider of the day was Australian Jason O’Halloran (McAms Yamaha) who edged out the Oxford Ducati of Tommy Bridewell by four one-hundredths of a second with Ryan Vickers (RAF Reserves Kawasaki) nine one-hundredths of a second back in third.
The majority of riders set their fastest times in the final session with Carrickfergus Honda pilot Glenn Irwin finishing seventh on the timesheets, 0.461sec behind O’Halloran’s time, with the SYNETIQ BMWs of Danny Buchan and Andrew Irwin 10th and 11th respectively, but less than a second off the pole position time.
Dunlop, meanwhile, improved his time by almost two and a half seconds over the sessions, ending the day in 24th position almost a second ahead of Waterford’s Brian McCormack.