Glenn Irwin's Cadwell Park ‘fighting results’ keep alive dreams of British Superbike title bid

​The Hager PBM Ducati rider finished the Bank Holiday weekend round bolstered by three straight fifth-place results.

Irwin said: “5-5-5 means I’m really happy with the performance of the team and myself this weekend, we worked hard to steady the ship and come away with some fighting results.

"Right now our package isn’t competitive enough to fight for wins every week due to our struggles on the harder tyre.

"It’s only in some areas of the track, but we lose so much.

"There are many positives with the performance in lots of other areas which keeps us optimistic whilst being realistic going forward into the next round at Oulton Park, where we won all three races earlier in the season.”

Irwin has jumped up the overall rankings from fourth to third following his Cadwell Park return.

He now trails Kyle Ryde in second by 41 points – with series leader Tommy Bridewell holding top spot with a margin of 60 over the Northern Ireland favourite.

Now the championship programme has reached the Showdown stage, points available from each race will increase.

As a result, Irwin and his team will view the chances of title glory very much a reality heading towards the Oulton Park meeting in three weeks’ time.

“Cadwell has been another tricky round for us but to come away with a trio of fifth-place finishes is more than we could’ve asked for at the beginning of the weekend,” said Jordan Bird, the team co-owner, as he reflected on the Bank Holiday run of results. “The team and Glenn worked tirelessly over the weekend and I can’t thank them all enough for their hard work.

"Now we can have a little time off, regroup and come back stronger at Oulton Park.

"It’s our home race and at the beginning of the year we took our first triple win.

"Thank you to our partners and the fans and supporters for all their support and belief in us.

"It’s certainly not over yet.”