Glenn Irwin fought back to win the British Superbike sprint race in the wet at Oulton Park on Sunday after being hampered by Christian Iddon’s crash and dropping to seventh.

Irwin was leading the race, delayed by almost an hour because of the conditions, until Iddon came past on the third lap.

However, the Oxford Products Racing Ducati rider slid off on the exit of Shell Oils, with Irwin running onto the grass as he took evasive action on the Hager PBM Ducati.

That left Leon Haslam in the lead on the ROKiT BMW but Irwin began to fight back, hauling himself up to second place and closing the gap to Haslam going into the 10th and final lap.

placeholder image — British Superbike rider Glenn Irwin on the Hager PBM Ducati

The Ulster rider passed Haslam on the brakes into Hizzy’s chicane, with former champion Haslam running straight on.

Irwin clinched a crucial victory to claw back more ground in the title race after he closed the deficit with a runner-up finish in Saturday’s opening race, which was won by Kyle Ryde on the OMG Yamaha.

Ryde, who started from pole in the Sprint race on Sunday, could only finish 13th, with Honda Racing’s UK’s Bridewell reclaiming the championship lead after crossing the line in fourth.

Bridewell – who was 19 points clear of Ryde and 60 ahead of Irwin coming into the opening Showdown round this weekend – crashed out of Saturday’s race on the first lap at Hizzy’s chicane.

He now has a narrow lead of nine points over Ryde ahead of the final race today (17:15 BST), with Irwin 31 points down on the reigning champion in third.

A disappointed Haslam finished fourth with Lewis Rollo (IN Competition/SENCAT Aprilia) and Jason O’Halloran (Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki) the top six.

Andrew Irwin was ninth on the Honda Racing UK Fireblade.