Glenn Irwin consolidated his status as the most successful Superbike rider at the North West 200 as he extended his winning streak at The Triangle to eight victories on the BeerMonster Ducati.

Having returned to the Paul Bird Motorsport squad in the British Superbike Championship (BSB) this season, it meant Irwin would also be targeting more NW200 silverware on the Ducati Panigale V4 R for the first time.

Coming five years after he notched up his first NW200 Superbike race victories with the PBM squad on the Ducati Panigale R twin - the Ulsterman adding three more in 2019 and 2022 on the JG Speedfit Kawasaki ZX-10RR and factory Honda CBR1000RR-R - Irwin was again the man to beat around his home road racing venue.

Though red flags brought a premature halt to proceedings in both races, Irwin was in the right place at the right time as he resisted the close attentions of Alastair Seeley (Milwaukee BMW), Michael Dunlop (Hawk MD Honda) and Dean Harrison (DAO Kawasaki) to be declared as the winner in both races.

With Irwin also leading the way in the BSB standings ahead of Round 3 at Donington Park this coming weekend, he was delighted to continue his fine record at the NW200.

“It’s an amazing feeling to win two more Superbike races although winning under red flags is never ideal so I hope the riders involved are all OK,” he said. 

“From a personal point of view, it’s been a tough week and we’ve had to turn things around. I knew what I wanted from the bike and it’s safe to say I didn’t have that on Tuesday. 

“The team changed the bike for me though and it was faultless. It took me a while to understand everything, and I haven’t always been involved in such close battles around here in the Superbike races. 

“That made the slipstream a bit tricky, and all the boys were riding fantastic, so I had to work hard. I tried to slow them up through Magherabuoy to get the jump on them on the way out and that allowed me to open a bit of gap, which obviously proved crucial. 

“I’ve got to say a big thanks to Paul Bird and the team for giving me such a great package and it’s just great to win in front of my home crowd again.”