Glenn Irwin took the opening British Superbike Championship win of the weekend at Oulton Park on Saturday afternoon, the BeerMonster Ducati rider delivering the perfect result for the team after the loss of team owner Paul Bird.

Irwin led from the start and was shadowed all the way by team-mate Tommy Bridewell but after he ran on at Hizzy’s on the final lap, Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) took second ahead of Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad Team). Victory saw Irwin cut Bridewell’s championship lead to just 7.5 points.

It was Irwin who grabbed the holeshot from Bridewell and Kyle Ryde (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) and that was the order at the end of the opening lap, Irwin’s lead over his team-mate just over half a second.

The order behind was Haslam, Jackson and Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW) after Storm Stacey (Starline Racing Kawasaki) crashed out at Lodge whilst Ryde’s team-mate Ryan Vickers was also in trouble after being hit with a ride through penalty for jumping the start.

Bridewell halved the deficit second time around with a lap of 1’33.812 and the Ducati riders were beginning to edge away from Ryde, Haslam and Jackson. Indeed, Irwin and Bridewell were more than a second clear of new third-placed rider Haslam as they started lap four whilst further back Jack Kennedy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha) crashed out.

There continued to be little to choose between Irwin and Bridewell, the gap just 0.105s after five laps, with Haslam holding off the close attentions of Ryde and Jackson. Brookes ran in sixth ahead of Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati) and Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) whilst Luke Stapleford was another faller with Vickers pulling off the circuit before he got given the black flag for failing to take his ride-through.

Jackson moved head of Ryde on lap six and both the Kawasaki rider and Haslam had cut the gap to the leaders from 1.3s to a second with Ryde losing ground at half race distance.

By lap eight, Irwin continued to lead Bridewell, the gap between the two hovering around one tenth of a second but Haslam and Jackson were reeling them in with 2018 champion Haslam now only half a second adrift of Bridewell.

Indeed, at the start of lap ten it was very much a leading quartet with just 0.6s covering the four riders and Jackson made a move on Haslam at Old Hall Corner to take over third. However, Irwin continued to keep them all at bay.

Going into the final lap, it was a three-way fight for victory between Irwin, Bridewell and Jackson but with Irwin running slightly wide on the exit of Old Hall, Bridewell edge ahead for the first time. Irwin was back in front at Island, but Bridewell’s hopes of victory then disappeared when he got into Hizzy’s too hot and had to run straight on.

Irwin duly took his seventh win of the season, 0.390s ahead of Jackson with Haslam completing the podium in third as Bridewell dropped back to fourth. Brookes overhauled Ryde for fifth in the closing stages with Iddon, O’Halloran, Peter Hickman and Charlie Nesbitt completing the top ten.