Irwin Back To Winning Ways At Oulton Park
A win and a second place at Oulton Park this weekend saw Glenn Irwin and the PBM Hager Ducati team thrust themselves firmly back into contention for the title at round nine of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.
Fourth in qualifying got the weekend off to a good start for Irwin and it looked like it would get better still in Saturday’s opening race, held over 18 laps in dry conditions, when he took the lead from Josh Brookes on the third lap.
Up to eight riders were disputing the lead at one point but Glenn kept them all at bay until lap 16 when Yamaha’s Kyle Ryde overhauled him. By this time the pack had been reduced to five riders but despite his best efforts, the Carrickfergus rider was unable to get back to the front and he had to settle for second place behind Ryde.
It was his first podium finish since Snetterton in July, but Sunday saw extremely different conditions, with wet weather seeing racing delayed by more than two hours and the first race cut to 10 laps. Starting from fourth, Glenn was quickly into the lead on the opening lap but lost time avoiding the fallen Christian Iddon meaning he dropped back to sixth. However, he fought back superbly and took the lead from BMW’s Leon Haslam on the final lap to take a brilliant victory.
Starting the final 15-lap race from pole position, held in damp conditions, Glenn slipped back to fifth in the early stages but as rain began to fall once more, the red flag came out on lap eight. Re-started over five laps, Irwin had to settle for ninth place at the flag but the results over the weekend have reduced the gap to the two riders ahead of him in the title chase. Glenn is now just 45 points behind series leader Tommy Bridewell with two rounds and six races remaining with battle recommencing at Donington Park in two weeks’ time.
Glenn Irwin: “A brilliant weekend to take a second place in the dry and then a win in the wet which I reckon was one of the best rides of my career. I thought we could go on and repeat that in race three but the track conditions changed and made it difficult. But we scored the most points out of everyone over the weekend and to take our seventh victory of the season means we are right back in the title race. The plan is to maintain the championship challenge and to keep exerting pressure on my title rivals. It was also very fitting to get the victory which I dedicated to Paul Bird, who we paid tribute to at Oulton Park this time last year, so that was very special.”
Frank Bird, Team co-owner: “After a few tricky rounds, it’s been great to get back to winning ways especially at our home circuit and to take 15 points out of competitors makes it doubly pleasing. We knew it was one of our strong tracks and Glenn was back to his best; he was on rails in the wet race, and it was a sublime performance. Yes, we could have been even closer to the top two, and at one stage the points gap was less than 30, but the conditions were really tricky in the last race so whilst ninth wasn’t ideal it was more points on the board. The bike is great in both the wet and dry but trickier in the mixed conditions, but it’s been a positive weekend overall and we’ll keep pushing on and never give up.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race one (18 laps)
1 Kyle Ryde (Yamaha)
2 Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) +0.303s
3 Lee Jackson (Honda) +0.423s
4 Josh Brookes (BMW) +0.705s
5 Ryan Vickers (Yamaha) +1.147s
6 Leon Haslam (BMW) +4.297s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race two (10 laps)
1 Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati)
2 Danny Kent (Yamaha) +0.679s
3 Leon Haslam (BMW) +3.000s
4 Tommy Bridewell (Honda) +3.618s
5 Lewis Rollo (Aprilia) +3.706s
6 Jason O’Halloran (Kawasaki) +4.472s
Bennetts British Superbike Championship race three (5 laps)
1 Kyle Ryde (Yamaha)
2 Tommy Bridewell (Honda) +5.965ss
3 Storm Stacey (Kawasaki) +6.487s
4 Max Cook (Kawasaki) +12.345s
5 Danny Kent (Yamaha) +12.760s
6 Christian Iddon (Ducati) +12.766s
9 Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) +14.790s
Championship Points (after nine rounds)
1 Bridewell 334pts
2 Ryde 328
3 Irwin 289
4 Iddon 245
5 Kent 234
6 Vickers 228
Pictures (courtesy of Double Red): Glenn Irwin in action at Oulton Park)
