BSB title hopeful Glenn Irwin tops FP1 at Donington Park as penultimate Showdown round commences
Glenn Irwin put down an early marker with the fastest time in opening free practice at Donington Park as the penultimate round of the British Superbike Showdown got underway on Friday.
On a drying track, Carrickfergus man Irwin only ventured out for the final 10 minutes of FP1 but quickly shot to the head of the time sheets on the Hager PBM Ducati.
His best lap of 1m 33.081s gave him the top spot by only 0.061s from OMG Yamaha’s Kyle Ryde in second.
Irwin is third in the championship standings with six races to go, 45 points behind Honda Racing UK’s Tommy Bridewell, who was seventh fastest in the morning session.
Bridewell holds a slender six-point advantage over Ryde, who is 39 points ahead of Irwin.
Ahead of Saturday’s opening race at the Derbyshire track, Irwin says only race wins will do as he attempts to put pressure on his rivals before the Showdown finale at Brands Hatch from October 11-13.
“I always look forward to going to Donington Park as it’s a track where we’ve had some amazing racing in the past couple of years,” said Irwin.
“Having won there earlier in the season, we arrive with a good feeling, but perhaps I should have won more than one race so I’m confident.
“I really need wins now as the two riders in front have still a bit of a gap so three race wins would be ideal.
“I firmly believe we can leave Donington with a much-reduced gap to the leaders which would be the perfect scenario heading into the final round at Brands Hatch.
“The team have worked incredibly hard this season, so let’s go and enjoy this weekend and hopefully set up for a championship challenge.”
Irwin narrowly missed out on becoming Northern Ireland’s first BSB champion last season by half-a-point to his then PBM Ducati team-mate Bridewell.
The 34-year-old also secured the title runner-up spot in 2022 and will be hoping the championship pendulum swings in his favour as he strives to go one better and win a record 10th BSB crown for the PBM team.
Behind the top three in FP1, ROKiT BMW’s Leon Haslam was fourth fastest followed by Storm Stacey (LKQ Euro Car Parts Kawasaki) and Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati).
Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing UK) slotted into ninth ahead of Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW).
FP2 is scheduled to take place at 3:35pm.