Glenn Irwin made it three different winners at the opening round of the 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship when the BeerMonster Ducati rider took the final race of the weekend at Silverstone.

The Ulsterman came home ahead of race two winner Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW) and team-mate Tommy Bridewell, the trio each ending a successful weekend on a strong note.

Brookes now leads the championship standings on 48 points ahead of Bridewell (46) and Irwin (43).

Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha), starting from pole, grabbed the holeshot from Brookes but the latter soon hit the front and he led the field round at the end of the opening lap, O’Halloran still in second from Jack Kennedy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha), Danny Kent (Lovell Kent Racing Honda), Irwin and Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW). Kyle Ryde (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) was seventh with Bridewell back in ninth.

Lap five and the running order was still the same with neither Ryde nor Bridewell having made any progress and, indeed, the former had been pushed down to eighth by Honda Racing’s Andrew Irwin.

By lap seven, the front four had opened a near-second gap over the rest of the field with Haslam leading the charge to reel them back in, Glenn Irwin going with him and Bridewell making a move up to seventh.

Kent got by Kennedy for third at the start of the eighth lap and the leading bunch had closed back together with Bridewell, still in seventh, now on the back wheel of team-mate Irwin. Andrew Irwin was a further half second back in eighth with a strangely quiet Ryde down to ninth.

O’Halloran got back into the lead at the start of the tenth lap, diving up the inside of his fellow Australian Brookes at Copse and Glenn Irwin had found his way back past Haslam. The top seven were still only covered by 1.1s though so it remained anyone’s race.

Kent was the next to make a move and he went into the lead on lap 13, the Honda rider continuing to impress, and there were now nine riders in the leading group, both Andrew Irwin and Ryde having closed back in.

At half race distance, Glenn Irwin pushed Brookes back to fourth and he then took second from O’Halloran at Brooklands with the running order now Kent, Irwin, O’Halloran, Brookes, Kennedy, Haslam, Bridewell, Andrew Irwin and Ryde.

Onto lap 18 and Kent continued to lead the way from Glenn Irwin with Brookes now back up to third and both Haslam and Bridewell having both overhauled Kennedy. However, towards the end of the lap, Irwin took the lead for the first time with Bridewell going into fifth at the same time, O’Halloran dropping back to sixth.

With ten laps to go, the front two of Irwin and Kent had opened a half second gap over Brookes but the gap continued to ebb and flow, and such was the pace only three seconds covered the leading 13 riders!

Heading into the final stages though, it looked to be Irwin’s race to lose and having put himself in a strong position he wasn’t to be denied, holding on for the win by a tenth of a second from Brookes and Bridewell.

Brookes had got past Kent with three laps to go with Bridewell following him by a lap later and O’Halloran nicked fourth from the former Moto 3 World Champion on the final lap with Haslam taking his third successive sixth place finish. Ryde took seventh and with Andrew Irwin dropping out with a technical issue, Kennedy, Lee Jackson and Ryan Vickers completed the top ten.

Christian Iddon, Peter Hickman, Tim Neave, Tom Neave and Hector Barbera rounded out the points scorers.

2023 BSB Silverstone | Rd.1 | Race 3 Results