Three top tens for Glenn Irwin in ‘testing weekend’ at Oulton

Oulton Park wasn’t an ideal opening British Superbike round for Honda Racing UK rider Glenn Irwin, as contact in race three resulted in a missed top five opportunity. 

Irwin recovered from 20th at the end of lap one to claim a third consecutive top ten finish - P10, which leaves him ninth in the standings. 

Irwin was one of the favorites heading into the weekend after a good pre-season, but the Fireblade never quite had the pace of Ducati riders Christian Iddon and Tommy Bridewell, Peter Hickman, and both McAMS Yamahas. 

However, the final race was Irwin’s best in terms of pace even with the contact early on, as his times were not far off the leaders whilst trying to make his way back through the field.

Speaking after race three, Irwin said: "It has been a testing weekend, but we are coming away having learnt a lot. 

"The third race was probably our best ride of the weekend, we made a big change to the Fireblade taking a bit of a risk, but we wanted to try something to give us an insight here when we come back at the end of the year, and potentially at other circuits. 

"The Fireblade was working really well in that race, but I had a collision on lap one with another rider which set me back to 20th and it was tough from there. 

"Everyone we caught we were able to pass immediately. It was a promising final race with our worst result of the weekend, but the best in terms of the development we managed to achieve with the Fireblade. Hats off to Jason [O’Halloran with his three wins this weekend!"