Glenn Irwin gunning for race victories at Donington Park to set up title challenge in Showdown decider at Brands Hatch

The Hager PBM Ducati rider trails reigning champion Tommy Bridewell by 45 points going into Saturday’s opening race (16:00 BST) and is 39 behind OMG Yamaha’s Kyle Ryde, who occupies second place in the standings.

In what is realistically a three-horse race for the title, Carrickfergus man Irwin needs to claw back as much ground as possible to give himself a chance of becoming Northern Ireland’s first British Superbike champion.

A winner at Donington at round three back in May, the 34-year-old topped the times in FP1 on a drying track on Friday morning after venturing out for the final 10 minutes of the session before ending the day ninth overall following a dry FP2 in the afternoon.

The 11-in-a-row North West 200 Superbike race winner narrowly missed out a dream BSB title last season by half-a-point to his then PBM Ducati team-mate Bridewell as the championship was decided in a thrilling final race at Brands Hatch.

Irwin 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 Cumbrian-based PBM team.

“We know what we need to do,” said Irwin. “We need to take points off our rivals in every single race and be there to pounce when anyone makes a mistake.

“The Hager PBM Ducati team are working well, it has been a fun year with seven wins and eight podiums and we go into this weekend looking to add to that.

“I obviously have very good memories of Donington Park from earlier in the year, particularly with race two where we led from start to finish and opened up a lead.

“The championship took a swing at Oulton Park with a poor race for Kyle and a DNF for Tommy, which closed the points from 60 to 45, so we continue with full faith and full belief.

“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,” he added.

“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.

“The team have worked incredibly hard this season, so let’s go and enjoy this weekend and hopefully set up for a championship challenge.”

Title pacesetter Bridewell competed as a wildcard at last weekend’s World Superbike round for Honda Racing UK at Cremona in Italy and has new engine and chassis updates for the penultimate BSB round at Donington.

“I am looking forward to Donington Park,” said Bridewell, fourth fastest on Friday behind Ryde, Ryan Vickers (OMG Yamaha) and Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati).

“For me, with the last three rounds, I always felt that Oulton Park was going to be our tougher weekend if I am honest.

“It has always been a good circuit for me as a rider, but I think we are just missing something with the bike that doesn’t work the best there. I was happy to get out of Oulton Park relatively OK.

“If we go back to earlier in the year at Donington Park, the bike was so much fun to ride there and it just works there. In truth it is just fun to ride there and I think going back this weekend, I have a lot higher expectation if I am honest than what I did going into Oulton Park.

“Going into this weekend we have some newer chassis parts that we had for Cadwell Park, so I am looking forward to seeing how they work here and I believe we have got another engine step as well, so I am looking forward to seeing what Honda have designed and made for this weekend.

“I think we should be in good form; I feel sharp, bike fit and ready to go and ready to get back out on track.”

Bridewell is also set to compete in the final World Superbike round as a wildcard at Jerez in Spain from October 18-20, a week after the conclusion of the British Superbike Championship at Brands.