Honda’s Andrew Irwin took victory in this morning’s opening Bennetts British Superbike race at Donington GP as brother, team-mate and points leader Glenn crashed out of the lead.
Glenn had taken the lead on lap one but went down at Goddards after opening a gap on the pack. Andrew took over as leader and never looked back.
With damp, cool conditions, Glenn crashed out of the lead at Goddards on the opening lap and with the VisionTrack Ducati duo of Christian Iddon and Josh Brookes finishing second and third respectively, they both overhauled him in the title standings, Iddon now leading his team-mate by two points.
Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) also lost ground as he slipped back to 14th in the difficult conditions bit it’s still tight as there are now only eight points covering the top four.
Glenn Irwin grabbed the holeshot from Andrew but the Championship leader was soon out and that put Andrew in the lead from Iddon, Danny Buchan (Rapid Fulfillment Kawasaki), Brookes, Joe Francis (PR Lloyd & Jones BMW) and Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserve Kawasaki) and by lap three the Ulsterman’s lead was 1.4s as Iddon, Buchan and Brookes disputed second.
Brookes pushed Buchan back to fourth on lap four with Iddon setting the fastest lap of the race to cut Irwin’s lead to just 0.334s whilst Vickers was continuing to go great guns in fifth.
Irwin responded and doubled his advantage a lap later whilst ninth placed Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) was now the fastest man on track. Iddon took that accolade from him on lap seven with the gap to leader Irwin less than half a second once more.
Indeed, the front three were closing up and at half race distance less than a second covered Irwin, Iddon and Brookes with Vickers now having overhauled Buchan and on course, comfortably, for his best ever BSB result.
Further back his team-mate Jack Kennedy and Kyle Ryde (Buildbase Suzuki) were coming through the pack rapidly, the duo the only two riders to fit an intermediate rear.
Back at the front and Irwin increased his lead to 0.6s at the end of the tenth lap only for Iddon to reduce this next time around as the track continued to dry with Ryde and Kennedy now exchanging the fastest lap of the race. O’Halloran had now dropped to 12th.
Try as he might, Iddon was unable to get close enough to Irwin and with the Carrickfergus rider going on to take his fourth BSB win, his attentions focused on keeping Brookes at bay which he managed to do to lead the BSB series for the first time since 2016.
Mackenzie made good progress throughout the race and got the better of Vickers on lap 13 to take fourth whilst Gino Rea was the lead Buildbase Suzuki in a fine sixth. Kennedy took seventh – and will start race two from pole after setting the fastest lap at the end – with Ryde, Buchan and Lee Jackson completing the top ten. O’Halloran picked up just two points for 14th.
