Glenn Irwin puts race two crash behind him to wrap up British Superbike double at Knockhill

The 33-year-old was leading when he slid off at the hairpin in the second race on the BeerMonster Ducati, handing victory on a plate to title rival Kyle Ryde (OMG Yamaha).

Irwin’s team-mate, Tommy Bridewell, finished as the runner-up to increase his points advantage over the Ulsterman in the title fight.

Irwin had moved to the top of the standings after converting his pole position start in Saturday’s Sprint race at the Fife track into a third win of the season.

He looked poised to extend his advantage further until he appeared to lose the front of his Ducati in race two.

However, the Carrickfergus man is only 11 points behind Bridewell and three behind Ryde after he came out fighting in the final race of the weekend.

Lying fourth on the first lap after starting from row two, Irwin fought his way past Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) and Ryde to move second behind Bridewell.

He sat behind his team-mate until he could finally make a decisive pass, hitting the front on the brakes into the first corner.

Irwin had enough pace to keep Bridewell at bay and held on to score his fourth victory of the campaign by 0.879s after 30 laps, with Ryan Vickers (OMG Yamaha) getting the better of team-mate Ryde for third.

Australian rider Jason O’Halloran crashed while leading on the McAMS Yamaha on the second lap.

Irwin, last year’s title runner-up, said: “I really enjoyed the race.

“When Tommy got ahead of Christian I knew we had to move forward with him. Hard luck to Jason crashing out, but I don’t think it would have made too much difference.

“For sure he would have been there but when I got to Tommy, he was good in some areas but I was stronger everywhere.

“He improved his braking into the hairpin which is something he had struggled with, so I was never going to try to pass him there, especially after my little whoopsie-do earlier.”

Irwin will now be looking forward to round five at Snetterton in Norfolk from July 7-9, a track where he has been traditionally strong in BSB in recent seasons.

Earlier, Alastair Seeley claimed a podium in third in the National Superstock 1000 race on the SYNETIQ BMW.

Dan Linfoot won the race to extend his lead in the championship over Donegal man Richard Kerr, who claimed the runner-up spot on his AMD Motorsport Honda ahead of Seeley.

“I’m very happy and our expectations were just to try and salvage some good points this weekend and do the best we could, but a podium has blown our expectations out of the water,” said former champion Seeley.

“Now we can move on to bigger tracks with longer straights and use the plus side of the bike.”

David Allingham from Eglinton finished 12th on the SMS Honda while Banbridge man Simon Reid was just outside the points in 16th on the Jackson Racing Honda.

In the British Supersport feature race, Eugene McManus took fifth while Donegal rider Rhys Irwin clinched a maiden victory.

Dungannon prospect Cameron Dawson had a strong ride to fourth in the National Junior Superstock race on his MSS Kawasaki.