Glenn Irwin's lead in British Superbike Championship slashed to five points after race two retirement at Oulton Park

Glenn Irwin’s lead in the British Superbike Championship was slashed to just five points on Sunday after the Honda Racing rider was forced out of race two at Oulton Park.

Irwin led the title race by 35 points coming into the fourth round of the series and finished fifth in Saturday’s opening race behind his younger brother and team-mate Andrew.

placeholder image — Honda Racing rider Glenn Irwin was forced out of race two at Oulton Park on Sunday.

Australian rider Jason O’Halloran won the race on the McAMS Yamaha from Christian Iddon (VisionTrack Ducati) and Danny Buchan (FS-3 Kawasaki) to cut Irwin’s deficit to 30 points ahead of Sunday’s two races at the Cheshire circuit.

However, in a dramatic championship twist, Irwin retired from race two on his Fireblade with a problem as he held sixth place with five laps to go and O’Halloran took full advantage, notching up his second victory of the weekend to close the gap to only five points ahead of race three (16:40 BST).

Iddon was 0.214s behind as he took second place for Paul Bird’s Ducati team ahead of Buchan, while former champion Josh Brookes (VisionTrack Ducati) slotted into fourth place.

Andrew Irwin was seventh behind Lee Jackson (FS-3 Kawasaki) and Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha).

Keith Farmer, who is making his comeback from injury, retired from the race on the Buildbase Suzuki. The Co Tyrone man earned a point in 15th place in Saturday’s race.

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