NW200: Masterful Glenn Irwin wraps up famous Superbike double

As thousands of fans basked in the glorious sunshine on the North Coast, Irwin blasted into the lead from pole on the PBM Be Wiser Ducati and was never headed throughout the seven lap blue riband showdown.

The Carrick man has now won three Superbike races on the trot on the Panigale R following his maiden success in 2017.

“It’s just awesome and the crowds around the whole track just reminded me of the Joey Dunlop days – everyone was waving and showing me the gaps I had, so I honestly didn’t need my pit board," he said.

“It’s been a hard week for the team because my team-mate (Shane Byrne) took a really bad injury at the Snetterton BSB test and Shakey’s not obviously in the best condition, so hopefully this win will raise the spirits in the PBM Be Wiser Ducati team."

Irwin won by 9.962 seconds in the end from Michael Dunlop on the Tyco BMW, who had tried in vain to close the deficit as he took the runner-up narrowly ahead of Honda Racing’s Lee Johnston.

Such was British Superbike star Irwin’s dominance, he led all 14 Superbike race laps on Saturday.

Dunlop had closed the gap to 4.7 seconds on Irwin at the end of the penultimate lap but the Ballymoney man lost time on the seventh and final lap.

Martin Jessopp (Riders Motorcycles BMW), Conor Cummins (Padgett’s Honda) and Dean Harrison (Silicone Engineering Kawasaki) rounded out the top six.

Alastair Seeley was 10th on the Tyco BMW following a disastrous start to the race, while his team-mate Dan Kneen was a retirement along with Peter Hickman (Smiths BMW).

The race was delayed by around 40 minutes due to a red flag at Ballysally roundabout.