Last year saw Andrew Irwin stand on the top of the podium at Donington Park on no less than three occasions and the Synetiq BMW rider enjoyed a welcome return to the Leicestershire venue at the weekend as he claimed his first Bennetts British Superbike Championship podium of the season.

He wasn’t able to repeat the winning heroics of 2020, when he was on the Honda Fireblade, but round five on the National circuit was his best weekend to date of a challenging season with third in the final race the highlight. He was strong all weekend though with his other finishes of seventh and ninth not a true reflection of his pace.

“It hasn’t been a fantastic season so far and the first four rounds have been difficult,” he said afterwards. “But the team have stuck behind me and kept the faith so it’s nice to reward them with a podium finish.”

“It’s taken longer than I thought to adapt to the M1000RR as I can normally adapt quickly but the shoots of recovery have been there for the last two rounds. The results have been coming and Friday at Donington was probably our most productive day of the season so far.”

Having shown strong pace at Brands and again at Thruxton, where he took a best finish of fifth, the Carrickfergus rider was able to make a good step forward at Donington with his engine braking strategy and that enabled him to be competitive in all three races.

“I’ve been feeling more and more comfortable with the bike and being competitive in the dry races felt really good. I know I can ride a motorbike and the team have worked hard to get me comfortable and I feel now that I’m riding as well as ever.”

The 25-year old had a coming together with Christian Iddon at Redgate in the second race, subsequently being docked two seconds and missing out on another top six finish, but he bounced back well to finish third behind brother Glenn in the final race when tyre choice was crucial.

“Intermediate tyres were probably the right choice for the final race. Slicks may even have been an option but I didn’t have the cahonas to put them in! It was difficult to know how hard to push but I’m obviously happy to have grabbed my first podium and I go to Cadwell now in a good frame of mind.”

“Not one person in the team has been doubting me so we will try to keep building on this. The main thing is to be competitive and there’s a better Andrew Irwin to come.”