Glenn Irwin was the toast of Oulton Park in round two of the British Superbike Championship at the weekend as the Hager PBM Ducati rider continued his excellent run at the Cheshire venue.
His hat-trick of wins over the weekend, all three polished performances, means that in the last nine races held at the track, he has won six, finished second in two and third in the other. Although it is still very early, his latest hat-trick has put him at the top of the title standings.
Both Sunday's race and Monday's Sprint followed a similar pattern of dominating proceedings from the front, with the latter seeing him lead from start to finish, and he admitted those are the types of races he likes.
“Sunday’s race was a lot of fun, and races like that, when you lead for a long period, are great races,” he said. “We put a lot of effort into learning the bike through testing and practice, so they set the pace from the front. I love leading the race and controlling it from there, so with the fastest race lap as well, it couldn't have been better.
Ryan Vickers led him for three laps in the first race before taking over but in the final race of the weekend it was Christian Idon who set the pace and Irwin had to chase him down two thirds of the race, such was his pace. He sits. However, once he got ahead, Irwin was as strong as he needed to be and did not allow his fellow Ducati rider to retaliate.
“We maintained our focus for Monday which is what we had to do as we were constantly making changes to the bike, not big changes but ones that made a difference. Christian had an amazing pace in the final race, but we showed a number of the key elements needed to win – resilience “Determination and precision are three. We had to show our personality as well.”
“I've had the treble before, but it doesn't come easy, so you've got to beat them when they're there. We boxed professionally this weekend, so the wins were nothing short of what the team deserved. It sets us up well for a busy couple of weeks with North West 200 after that and then Donington BSB, so a huge thank you to Jordan, Frank and the whole team.
