British Superbike title hopeful Glenn Irwin says ‘nothing will ever persuade me to go back and race the roads’
Glenn Irwin is adamant nothing would ever persuade him to return to road racing as he turns his focus to becoming Northern Ireland’s first British Superbike Champion.
The Carrickfergus man won the Race of the Year accolade at the Adelaide Irish Motorbike Awards in Belfast for his victory in the third Superbike race at last year’s North West 200 after a battle with Davey Todd.
Irwin’s big bike treble extended his unbeaten run in the premier class to 11, with the 34-year-old breaking the previous record of nine Superbike victories jointly held by Joey Dunlop and Michael Rutter.
However, he announced his decision to retire from road racing last year and says the only objective that remains in his career is to secure the BSB crown.
He has twice finished as the championship runner-up in 2022 and 2023, when he narrowly lost the title by half-a-point to his then PBM Ducati team-mate Tommy Bridewell.
Speaking at the glittering awards ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Irwin said: “In life you make decisions that are big and if you have to sit and think about something, then you’re not sure and that can happen quite often.
“I think I’ve said before that me and Laura (Irwin’s partner) were in Dublin the week after Brands Hatch and I’d had quite a bad oil leak at Brands, and a crash was caused outside of my control.
“It’s three times on short circuits I’ve had really bad crashes, with a handlebar breaking, front brake failing and now an oil leak, and I’ve eight or nine broken vertebrae all through things like this.
“Brands planted a little seed and we were in Dublin for Laura’s birthday weekend and I said I’m done with the North West. I think she thought there was something wrong with me but to be fair she said she would never encourage me to make that decision and that I had to make it myself.
“There was a little bit of talk between us and some realisations of what you have at home; I’ve three great kids and watching that (footage) back is amazing, memories that I’ll cherish forever,” he added.
“My time as a rider at the North West 200 has been and nothing will ever persuade me to go back and race roads, but what I would say is that road racing has given me some of the most special moments of my life.
“We’ve already seen Michael Dunlop up here tonight… and he’ll probably give you the same answer: we’re blessed to have this heritage in our sport and to be a small part of the sport’s history and success is something I never thought [would happen].
“I never thought I would road race, we were never allowed to, but the North West has been amazing and I’ll stay involved hopefully long into the future.”
Irwin’s burning desire is to come out on top in the British Superbike Championship this year, when he will again lead the charge for the PDM Ducati team.
“The only thing that I want to achieve in racing is to win the British Superbike Championship,” he said.
“It’s the only thing left that I think about outside of family and business, and hopefully we can do it a number of times.
“I think everyone in this room would love to see it come to this island, north or south; there’s a lot of potential talent and I hope to be the first person to do that.”