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Jason O'Halloran has completed a dream weekend for the Yamaha factory team in the Denso Supersport races at the GMC Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old from Albion Park (NSW) joined teammates Mark Aitchison and Jamie Stauffer on this weekend's winners' list, continuing Yamaha's remarkable run in the 2006 domestic season.
The tuning fork behemoth has won all 16 national-level Supersport races so far this year, with Stauffer crossing the finish line first in 11 of them.
However, the final race wasn't one of those, with O'Halloran edging out his more experienced teammate by a scant 0.045 seconds after an absorbing eight-lap scuffle.
Stauffer stalked O'Halloran for the majority of the race, before passing him at Turn One on the final lap. However, O'Halloran's riposte was superb ¨ and immediate - shoving his YZF-R6 back up the inside at Turn Four. He then held on, despite a late lunge by Stauffer along Gardner Straight.
"Jamie is always hard to beat, so to keep him in second place was a great achievement," said O'Halloran. "I've now won races at the last three national meetings, and have been in contention in all the races."
"I've now feeling really confident going into the next round of the Australian title at Winton next month."
The pace was a hot one in race three, with the elapsed time nearly four seconds faster than the opening eight-lapper yesterday.
Most of that was due to the belligerence of the two front-runners, who hit the ground running ¨ with Aitchison and Bryan Staring (Honda CBR600RR) valiantly trying to keep them in touch.
It didn't happen, although the gritty Aitchison, nursing a broken foot, did manage to sneak away from Staring in the second half.
New lap record holder Jeremy Crowe (YZF-R6) was fifth, but still finished the program third overall on 52pts, behind Stauffer (66) and Aitchison (63). O'Halloran, who was a lowly 12th in race one after a mid-race spill, banked 51pts.
Glenn Allerton (CBR600RR), Josh Waters (ZX-6RR) and Judd Greedy (CBR600RR) filled positions 6-8 in race three, with the latter fifth overall on 45pts.
The Oceania Road Race Championship was also incorporated into the Denso Supersport races at Phillip Island, with Stauffer the clear winner on 66pts from compatriots Aitchison (63) and O'Halloran (58), with Sam Smith (YZF-R6) holding together the New Zealand cause on 50.
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