Glenn Irwin closes title gap in British Superbike Championship despite 'tough' weekend at Thruxton

Irwin was 13th in both races on Sunday after his top-ten effort in Saturday’s Sprint race, but the Carrickfergus man did close the gap to his BeerMonster Ducati team-mate Tommy Bridewell to 26.5 points.

Bridewell was 14th in the Sprint race and Sunday’s opening 20-lap encounter, before clinching the final point available in race three, when he crossed the line in a lowly 15th.

McAMS Yamaha’s Jason O’Halloran – who has now won eight of the last nine races at the Hampshire track – claimed a brilliant treble for a big points haul to move into third place in the championship after round seven of 11 and is now 24 behind Irwin in second.

Irwin, whose last wins were achieved at Knockhill in Scotland in June – where he sealed a double – will now be looking to get back into podium contention at Cadwell Park in less than two weeks’ time after struggling at Ducati’s bogey track.

Explaining the problems he faced, the 33-year-old said: “I knew it would be tough this weekend, for a number of reasons.

“It’s a couple of things; we have always a lack of edge grip and you ride this bike like [Alvaro] Bautista, just get the thing picked up.

“Thruxton lends itself to long, continuous corners and pretty much the whole back of the track you’re on the right-hand side. That hurts you and the tyre this weekend is a stiffer tyre, that has even less grip, so that kind of hurts us even more.

“That being said, I was really happy with yesterday’s race; I know it was a ninth but championship-wise it was really good,” he added.

“We tried stuff in warm-up, some pros and cons, but I didn’t like the feeling of it at Church, so the guys have had to work so hard this weekend, and big thanks to them.”

Aussie O’Halloran started on pole in Saturday’s race, which he won by 1.6s from BSB rookie Charlie Nesbitt (Hawk Racing Honda), with Ryan Vickers third on the OMG Yamaha.

However, O’Halloran had to come from the third row in yesterday’s races, working his way through the pack before forcing his way into the lead in the closing stages.

He won race two by 1.1s from Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) and the impressive Nesbitt, with O’Halloran completing his clean sweep by two tenths in the final race from Jackson. Nesbitt was again third ahead of fellow championship newcomer Max Cook (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki).

Dublin rider Jack Kennedy was 11th in the Sprint race and almost matched his best ever BSB result in race two, when he claimed fifth on the Mar-Train Racing Yamaha.

However, the Irishman was out of luck in race three when he crashed out after unavoidably running into Danny Kent, whose Honda appeared to have suffered a rear suspension failure.

In the British Supersport Feature race, Eunan McGlinchey was left fuming after crashing out following contact with Donegal’s Rhys Irwin as they battled for third.

Irwin went on to finish second behind Ben Currie, while Eugene McManus was eighth.

Dungannon’s Cameron Dawson was fourth in the National Junior Superstock race and Jamie Lyons ninth.

Antrim’s Nikki Coates finished fourth in the main BMW Motorrad F 900 R Cup race, which was won by Richard Cooper.