Glenn Irwin 'fired warning shots' to key British Superbike rivals with Oulton Park race pace

The May Bank Holiday meeting was overshadowed by the tragic death of young English rider Owen Jenner and New Zealand’s Shane Richardson following a multiple-rider crash on the first lap of the Feature Supersport race.

The remainder of the meeting was abandoned and the final BSB race did not take place, leaving Carrickfergus man Irwin tied on 32 points with Leon Haslam and Bradley Ray, who shared a victory apiece at the Cheshire circuit, with Irwin twice finishing as the runner-up.

Donington Park hosts round two this weekend and Hager PBM Ducati rider Irwin expects the racing to be every bit as close.

“Looking ahead to the weekend you almost feel a little bit guilty, because obviously we all want to continue to pay our respects to Owen and Shane’s families, and when we look back at Oulton Park, the whole event is overshadowed by this sadness,” Irwin said.

“But if I was to look just purely at the riding side of things and the teamwork, I felt we did a good job. We had some difficult moments but we did well to come from 14th to second in Race 1 and particularly Race 2, after four laps we were 3.3 off and eight laps later to only be 0.1 off the win was very pleasing.

“I think as riders, we all know what we achieved in terms of race pace over the two races; we only ever took time out of Bradley (Ray) and Leon (Haslam) and for me that was confidence inspiring.

“I think we fired our own warning shots without winning races which is important for our own confidence and important to cement ourselves in the thoughts of our rivals as well.

“This weekend and the whole championship in general is going to be close. The three of us who were in it at Oulton will be there, I expect Kyle (Ryde) to be there and Danny Kent to also join the party this weekend. It’s going to be a good one.”

On Friday, Irwin topped free practice at Donington by 0.093s from Ray (Raceways Yamaha), with Rory Skinner (Cheshire Mouldings Ducati) in third.

Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing), Scott Swann (IWR Honda) and Richard Kerr (MLav Racing BMW were 10th, 12th and 22nd respectively.

The first race on Saturday is scheduled for 16:15 BST with Sunday’s BSB races at 13:15 BST and 16:20 BST.