Irwin Romps to Knockhill Victory
BeerMonster Ducati rider Glenn Irwin enjoyed an excellent start to round four of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Knockhill this afternoon with pole position followed by a dominant performance in the BikeSocial Sprint race to take his third victory of the season.
With the team having taken part in a test at the Scottish venue earlier in the month, hopes were high coming into the meeting, but it was Irwin who shone the brightest in qualifying as he claimed pole position on Paul Bird’s F23-specification V4R BeerMonster Ducati.
A time of 47.158s gave him the top spot with teammate Tommy Bridewell having to settle for tenth place, three rows further back, albeit less than four tenths of a second adrift.
The 20-lap race was expected to be a tight and hectic affair around the 1.269-mile Fife circuit which overlooks the Firth of Forth, but Irwin quickly took the lead from Jason O’Halloran and from there on he was never headed, consistently maintaining a half second advantage over the rest of the field. Towards the end of the race, he upped his pace to extend his lead and eventually took the win by 0.606 seconds over Kyle Ryde with O’Halloran finishing third.
Irwin’s debut Knockhill victory sees him reclaim the title lead ahead of Bridewell, who put together a strong race from his fourth row starting position. With two places gained on the opening lap, Tommy continually moved forward and once he’d overtaken Leon Haslam, he immediately pulled away from the chasing pack to take a hard-earned fourth place to end up just three points behind Irwin going into tomorrow’s two races.
Glenn Irwin:
“It was a tough start to the weekend, and we knew it would be a strong track for our rivals, but we improved in every practice session, and I was really happy to take pole position. I knew then that we could have a great day and we made another change to the bike ahead of the race and it was so enjoyable. I wanted to be precise, composed and at one with the bike and everyone’s working really hard so, hopefully, we can do the same again tomorrow.”
Tommy Bridewell:
“We were off the pace initially but made a bold geometry change ahead of qualifying which was massive step forward and we then made another change ahead of the race. That meant I had to re-learn the bike and, of course, when you go faster, you find new issues. That said, our pace was good and once I’d got up to fourth and pulled away from Leon, the gap to the front three stayed the same. We’ve got some good data now and I’m confident we’ve got the pace to fight for the wins tomorrow.”
Johnny Mowatt, Team Co-ordinator:
“It’s been a really good day. The test a couple of weeks ago put us in good stead and Glenn has been able to fine tune the bike in each session and ride it to its limits. Pole position was an unexpected bonus, but we knew if we could do low 47s, we’d be hard to beat. He rode an impeccable race with pinpoint accuracy and never let anyone get close enough to pass; it was a fantastic ride. Tommy and his side of the garage have had to work a bit harder, but they found a good setting in qualifying and to come from tenth to fourth around here was a remarkable ride. We’re still 1-2 in the Championship so let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship – BikeSocial Sprint race (20 laps)
1 Glenn Irwin (BeerMonster Ducati)
2 Kyle Ryde (Yamaha)
3 Jason O’Halloran (Yamaha)
4 Tommy Bridewell (BeerMonster Ducati)
5 Christian Iddon (Ducati)
6 Leon Haslam (BMW)
Championship positions
1 Irwin 134 pts
2 Bridewell 131
3 Ryde 125
4 Brookes 121
5 Haslam 120
6 O’Halloran 84
Images courtesy of Double Red: Glenn Irwin (2) and Tommy Bridewell (46) at Knockhill
