Glenn Irwin faith 'we would come strong' as opening British Superbike weekend ends in morale-boosting result before NW200
Glenn Irwin’s British Superbike Championship weekend went from “fundamental problems” to “finer details” as he prepared for a NW200 return home with a morale-boosting fifth-place finish on Monday around Oulton Park.
Having previously highlighted issues with his Nitrous Competitions Racing Ducati across the programme, the Carrickfergus rider’s British sign-off ended with a smiling Irwin setting sights on “a few wins at the North West”.
"People have to understand, being racers you know we want it so much...I, personally, I do wear my heart on my sleeve,” said Irwin on TNT Sports following his step forward from 10th on the grid in the closing race of the opening round. "I love this job and I absolutely crave that success...I can hand on my heart say that's the first session from testing that we haven't had a technical problem.
"And by technical problem, like large enough technical problems to completely stop performance.
"I would come in and say to the guys 'OK, I think the rear of the bike is a little bit dominant over the front...I think our throttle connection is a little bit too aggressive, I'd like to soften that'.
"Now we're down to finer details...honestly, that has to feel like an FP1 because the bike was working normally.
"I'm happy with the resilience we showed...I was really, really down in the dumps prior to that race but I knew when I put the helmet on, we would come strong.
"So, yeah, it was a good ride...enjoyable and dug in, the team deserve it because they've worked super hard.
"Right up to that race, there was a gearbox sensor and it's been gone since we got the bike.
"And we spoke yesterday (Sunday) I can't go down the gearbox and now, for the first time, I can attack because I know what gear I'm going to get and it was so nice."
He added: "It was nice to actually look at the podium briefly and go, ‘maybe’...so, let's target that at Donington Park (British Superbike round two) and a few wins in North West."
Andrew Irwin posted placings of 16th and 19th over Monday on the MET fonaCAB Racing Ducati but Randalstown’s Eugene McManus did not finish either race.
Dungannon teenager Jack Burrows, having clinched his maiden British championship win in the opening Moto4 British Cup race on the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Honda across Sunday followed by second, came home runner-up to Ryan Frost on Monday.