BeerMonster Ducati’s Glenn Irwin was still smiling despite managing a best finish of just ninth place in the latest round of the British Superbike Championship [BSB] at Thruxton as he clawed back some of the deficit to team-mate Tommy Bridewell in the title race.

Irwin took a best finish of ninth and defeated Bridewell in all three races to shave eight points of his rival’s lead despite the optimism after Saturday’s Sprint race evaporating somewhat in the longer races where he was unable to crack the top ten.

“I knew it would be tough this weekend, for a number of reasons, but whilst we had good drive, we had hardly any edge grip and that hurt us as you’re on the edge of the tyre so much at Thruxton,” he explained.

“I felt positive after Saturday’s race as I was in a fight for sixth and felt as strong, if not stronger, than the riders around me. It’s so difficult to fight though without that edge grip but I fought hard and was happy enough with ninth.”

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That was as good as good as it got though with a brace of 13^th’s taken in the longer format races as he battled on track with Bridewell.

Like his team-mate though, he was able to look at the bigger picture, recognising the tracks coming up favour the Ducati more but also recognising the threat now posed by hat-trick hero Jason O’Halloran.

“I’ve been working on things a lot this season and trusting the journey so focusing on that mindset really helps and whilst the results aren’t the best, from a championship perspective I’ve closed the gap to Tommy; if you’d have offered me that at the beginning of the weekend, I’d have taken it.”

“The only slight problem is that we’ve invited Jason in! Hats off to him, he rode phenomenally well but we knew he’d be strong here as were other teams. Fighting for two or three points in each race is far from ideal but the bike simply doesn’t work here.”

“That’s just a fact and no criticism of anyone or anything so we’ll put it behind us and move on. I’ve enjoyed all the races and am content with my riding and the effort we all put in so with four strong tracks coming up, we’ll be back up front next time out.”