BSB Oulton Park: Glenn Irwin seals terrific treble to take title advantage ahead of North West 200 Superbike record bid

The Carrickfergus man took over the lead of the championship after he followed up his victory in Sunday’s opening race with a double at the Cheshire track on the Hager PBM Ducati on bank holiday Monday.

Irwin, who started from pole in the Sprint race, held off reigning champion Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) and Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati) to claim his second win of the weekend by 0.352s.

In the final race, Irwin had to work hard to overhaul race leader Iddon, who continued to pressure the Carrickfergus rider until the finish.

Iddon was breathing down Irwin’s neck on the final lap but was unable to attempt a pass as he lost out by a tenth of a second, with Ryan Vickers completing the top three.

Triple winner Irwin said: “I was thinking in the motorhome that I’ve won two out of three a lot of times – I have done the treble once before at Silverstone – but you need to take trebles when they are there.

“I sat and watched Christian a bit in the beginning (in Race 3) and… I knew he was really strong at Druids. I let him use a little bit of rubber and came back to him but I had to work really, really hard – his pace was phenomenal.

“On the last lap I tried to get Druids just a little bit better than what I had been. It was enough to grab a treble and it sets us up nicely for a busy two weeks with the North West 200 and also with Donington Park.”

Irwin sent his best wishes to those riders who were involved in a multiple bike accident at the beginning of the BMW F900R Cup race.

Earlier, TAS Racing’s Rory Skinner crashed at high speed in morning warm-up on the Cheshire Mouldings BMW at Island Bend, with his helmet coming off in the incident. Skinner was taken to hospital but was later released.

In the British Supersport Feature race, Ben Currie won from Jack Kennedy and Randalstown’s Eugene McManus. Alastair Seeley – a non-starter at the NW200 – was sixth.

Davey Todd won the National Superstock 1000 race from Northern Ireland’s David Allingham.