British Superbikes: Oulton Park - Emotional win for Irwin

Glenn Irwin continued to cut into his teammate Tommy Bridewell’s lead, but with a emotional, charged performance from the pair at the front of the sprint as the PBM team celebrated their Team Boss through their racing in the sprint race that kicked off the Showdown at Oulton Park.

Lisa Lewis

Updated: 23 Jan 2024

British Superbikes, Round nine, Showdown, Oulton Park, irwin, Jackson, Haslam, sprint race — British Superbikes, Round nine, Showdown, Oulton Park, irwin, Jackson,…

There was a clear need to be in front and in contention for the BeerMonster Ducati riders, not just for the stakes in the championship standings, but for the memory of Paul Bird, which filled Oulton Park at Round nine of the BSB Championship.

‘Thanks Tommy for not taking me off!’

It was Tommy Bridewell who claimed pole but he was soon surpassed by Glenn Irwin who found extra inspiration from the situation:

“We’ve come to here off the back of the news about Paul, It was tough a couple of weeks ago when we got that news, coming here we have to like, nearly be not emotional, we have to come and do our job and I think, not just me as an entire team and to Tommy as well, we’ve done that all weekend, we’ve set a great level.

For the race, the Ducati can be so temperamental off the line, a lot of hard work at the minute, a lot of mindfulness, presence. I needed that start, and, you know, I think I knew I would get it - it’s weird. Yeah, my heads been so focussed at getting off at the lights, we done that, I had quite a strong opening lap”.

Irwin could control the race from the front, and was able to keep Bridewell at bay until the final lap, but by then it was no longer just the pair of Ducati’s in contention for the win as Leon Haslam and Lee Jackson were firmly in the lead group:

“Went fast for like 4/5 laps then chose to slow down a bit, started to read Tommy’s board more and see 1.5/1.3 over Leon, to comedown, so at that stage I started to use the big screen, to get other riders involved if I could.

Bridewell hit the front briefly, but Irwin bit straight back - at Hizzy’s the #46 was so close contact was inevitable, so the #46 went up the road off track and rejoined in fourth.

It gave Irwin the advantage he needed to win, though Jackson was close behind as he continued to gain to the line. Irwin, still pushing, was unaware of the blank space behind:

“I didn’t know what happened on the last lap, the boys have just told me - so thanks Tommy for not taking me off, I think it was quite close!”

Irwin tribute helmet for Paul Bird Oulton Park 2023, BSB, British Supebikes

Irwin, who has a special helmet design dedicated to Paul Bird, had immediately pulled his bike over and pointed to the sky at the close of the race. Instead of not happening in respect, the riders chose to spray their champagne as a positve, happy reation to the race.

Second went to Lee Jackson, picking himself up some silverware to take home on his birthday.

‘Got a good start,which was a bit of an odd one for me!’

Oulton Park, Race one, Jackson, BSB, 2023

The Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki rider was key in cutting the gap to the front duo and was still employing pressure all the way to the chequered flag, all the more impressive given qualifying didn’t go to plan:

I handicapped myself a little bit starting eighth on the grid. I felt really good on Friday with practices, then qualifying just didn’t have quite go to plan, I didn’t have the same feeling, made the bike kind of almost back to where we was for yesterday and got a good start,which was a bit of an odd one for me! Normally my start, first lap is not the best.

From there the first target was a faltering Kyle Ryde, later revealed to be having issues due to changes meant to improve his performance:

“Settled in behind Leon and then Storm went down, which gave us a bit of a chasing pack to Kyle, which was nice for a couple of clean laps.

Caught Kyle and passed Kyle and once I knew it was just me and Leon to chase down the guys in front, I had plus one on the board, so it was nice to settle into the rhythm and work out where I was stronger and make the move eventually”.

The situation in front was approaching rapidly and Jackson, after passing Halsam confidently with a huge swooping move and an instant gap was ready to pick up the pieces at the battle for first sprang into life as the quartet neared the line:

“At one point I could see maybe Tommy was waiting just for that last lap pass, because he looked like he was just all over the back of Glenn, but didn’t quite make the move, so going into that last lap I knew that something might just come off of this.

Tommy was deep and then after he went straight on - I can maybe capitalise on the fact he’d gone straight on and finish second today”.

‘It’s always a battle at Oulton Park!’

After moving through with Jackson, and proving that the manufacturer you ride with is no barrier to a podium finish, Leon Haslam brought home his Rokit BMW Motorrad third:

“At certain points of the track the BMW is really strong, as it was in the first round here - we had two seconds and a third.

It’s always a battle at Oulton Park! We’re trying a few things, we’ve gone the wrong way a few times this weekend but we’re there or thereabouts”.

The result saw Irwin able to slice the points difference, now with 25 for a win following entering the Showdown. At 14.5 before the race the Northern Irish rider is now just 7.5 points behind his teammate, with Bridewell saving an exit to move onto 321 points as the BeerMonster bikes look to be the most likely to take the title fight to the wire now with 14 wins between them.