Battling runner-up finish behind Donington Park British Superbike treble winner Bradley Ray 'feels like a win' says Glenn Irwin

Irwin reeled in runaway leader Ray after passing Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati), bridging a two-second gap to put Ray under pressure in the final laps.

The Hager PBM Ducati rider lost time at the Fogarty Esses with two laps to go after he almost made contact with the rear wheel of Ray’s Raceways Yamaha when he appeared to be lining up a pass.

That allowed former champion Ray to pull a slight advantage, but Irwin shattered the lap record on the penultimate lap with a time of 1’26.832s to put himself right back in contention.

However, a rear-end slide coming out of the Fogarty Esses thwarted Irwin’s prospects of attacking Ray for the lead at the Melbourne hairpin.

Ray won by just under four tenths of a second for a Donington hat-trick and his fourth win of the season following a victory earlier in May at Oulton Park.

The 27-year-old leads Irwin by 12 points after the first two rounds in Ray’s return to BSB after he spent the past two years competing in the World Superbike Championship.

Skinner held on to take third for Northern Ireland’s TAS Racing team ahead of Leon Haslam (Moto Rapido Ducati).

Irwin said: “We had really poor tyre degradation yesterday [Saturday] and we worked very hard to understand why that was and we rectified that.

“I was really happy to sit behind Rory [Skinner] and obviously there was a gap [to Bradley Ray], but I knew how easily I was taking it on the first ten [laps].

“Once I got through I could see Brad was having a little bit of tyre trouble and at this level, you need to take half chances and I probably had a good chance into the chicane on the lap where I made the mistake.

“He braked earlier than what I expected and I pulled out of trying to pass him, and nearly hit Brad’s back wheel, so I had to lose a good chunk of time.

“But the resilience to come back and do a 1’26.8 on lap 19… I’m not too fussed about two points here and there at the minute at this time in the year.”

Irwin is confident he will only get stronger as the season continues, with Snetterton in Norfolk up next from June 20-22.

“It’s making the best of the job that we have and we’re only going to grow,” added Irwin. “We’ll get stronger and stronger and cooler conditions will come into play later in the year when we come back [to Donington].

“Honestly, I’m so happy and it feels like a win to bridge that gap in front of a packed Donington Park crowd and break the lap record, but hats off to Brad.

“I felt with four to go it was just going to be [about] picking my moment, but he responded and that’s what makes this championship so great, there’s many top characters in it.”

Behind the top four, reigning champion Kyle Ryde (OMG Nitrous Competitions Yamaha) and Josh Brookes (DAO Racing Honda) finalised the first six.

Andrew Irwin was 11th for Honda Racing with BSB rookie Scott Swann 14th on the Send My Bag IWR Honda.

In the Sprint race, Irwin fought back for a podium after running straight on at the Fogarty Esses when he tried to pass Ray on the brakes for the lead.

Irwin dropped to fourth behind Skinner but gradually reeled the Scotsman in, making a pass at the Fogarty Esses on the last lap to secure the final rostrum spot, with Ray beating Ryde by 1.1s.

Skinner closed out fourth with Haslam fifth ahead of Brookes.

Honda Racing duo Andrew Irwin and Tommy Bridewell completed the top eight and Swann was 13th, with Richard Kerr outside the points in 19th on the ROKiT BMW for Michael Laverty’s team.

In the Supersport Feature race, Donegal’s Rhys Irwin (Performance 15 Suzuki) followed up his third place in Saturday’s Sprint race with a runner-up finish behind double winner Ben Currie (Moto Rapido Ducati).

Eugene McManus from Randalstown was fourth on the MMB Racing Ducati ahead of reigning champion Jack Kennedy (Honda Racing UK).

Eglinton’s David Allingham took fifth in the National Superstock 1000 race on the SMS/Nicholl Oils BMW, which was won by Ukraine’s Ilya Mykhalchyk (ROKiT BMW).

Cullybackey’s Peter Willis (WM Racing Honda) was seventh and sixth in the British Talent Cup races, while Jack Burrows (Burrows/RK Racing Honda) from Dungannon was 14th in the first race on Saturday and 10th in Sunday’s race.