Glenn Irwin was the toast of Oulton Park at round two of the British Superbike Championship at the weekend as the Hager PBM Ducati rider continued his excellent run of form at the Cheshire venue.
His hat-trick of victories over the weekend, all three polished performances, mean in the last nine races to take place at the circuit, he’s won six, taken second in two and third in the other. And whilst it’s very early days, his latest treble has seen him take over at the top of the title standings.
Both Sunday’s race and Monday’s Sprint followed a similar pattern as he controlled proceedings from the front, the latter seeing him lead from start to finish, and he admitted these are the types of races he likes.
“Sunday’s race was very enjoyable and races like that, when you lead for so long, are the sweet ones,” he said. “We did the hard work learning the bike through testing and practice so set the pace from the front. I like to lead and control the race from there so with the fastest lap of the race as well, it couldn’t have worked out better.”
Ryan Vickers headed him for three laps in the first race before he took over but in the final race of the weekend, it was Christian Iddon who set the pace and Irwin had to shadow him until two-thirds race distance such was the pace he was sitting. However, once ahead, Irwin was strong where he needed to be and didn’t allow his fellow Ducati rider to retaliate.
“We stayed focused for Monday which we needed to do as we were constantly making changes to the bike, not big ones but ones that made a difference. Christian set a phenomenal pace in the final race, but we showed a number of key ingredients needed to win – resilience, determination and precision being three. We had to show our character too.”
“I’ve done the treble before but they don’t come easy, so you have to take them when they’re there. We boxed professionally this weekend, so the victories were nothing short of what the team deserved. It sets us up nicely for a busy two weeks with the North West 200 next and then Donington BSB so a big thanks to Jordan, Frank and the whole team.”
