British Superbikes: double delight for Irwin at Knockhill

Glenn Irwin out behind him the tumble out of race two while at the front to come back with a second win, with only thoughts of the possible triple that could have been disrupting a fine showing at the Scottish track.

‘It was so close to being three’

That run wide at the hairpin was the only thing that came between the Northern Irish rider and three on the bounce in the end:

“It’s been an amazing weekend, to win two BSB races in a weekend is always good and usually it’s about the points etcetera, the championship lead and stuff, but I don’t think I expected maybe to get these points coming into here so to have it with two wins and a DNF I’m pretty grateful for.

It was so close to being three but that’s ‘shoulda woulda coulda’ …it is what it is”.

The BeerMonster Ducati rider spoke of the challenge of racing with rivals on very similar machinery:

“Lining up for that race it was a new challenge, we had two Ducatis ahead of me and I hadn’t ridden with Tommy or Christian this weekend, so the plan was to pass them guys as early as possible so I had a look at Tommy into T3 on lap one but - it’s your teammate!

Steady away, I sussed a few of them out and when Tommy got to the lead Christian was ahead of me. So I thought we need to go quite soon because I knew he had found a lot today especially, Also Kyle, but then Kyle looked like he was catching Tommy, then started to look not so confident, and from then I think he lost his rhythm and I felt quite good.

Had a look at Tommy for a good number of laps , it was nice to rude with him, he was riding faultless,was very good into the hairpin…but I was never going to try and pass him there after this morning!

For Irwin his comeback was like a statement of intent when it comes to his title hopes this 2023 season:

“That’s like a statement race, you want to come from behind, you want to come away two wins out of three to lay down a marker to the rest of the guys”.

‘I’m happy and I’m disappointed’

It was a 1-2 over the line with Tommy Bridewell second. His practice and qualifying as off and resulted in the #46 starting down the grid - ninth in fact on race three, but by that final race, he and his team at Ducati had a workaround which left him feeling much better on the bike after a tough start to stay competitive:

“Not a drastic amount to report, just an damn sight easier to be honest. I think I used a lot of energy up though the weekend because we have not been on the pace and the bikes not been very good through Friday, Saturday morning -really, really difficult to be honest.

So I’ve used a lot of energy to try and find a solution and find the way to ride the bike, the way to ride the circuit and how to get the bike right - credit to the team, we really got the bike a lot, lot closer.

• 2023 British Superbikes Knockhill: Race Results (3)
• 2023 British Superbikes Knockhill Race Results (2)

Though the bike may have not been running to perfection Bridewell’s perseverance paid off - on the podium with a second in both of Sunday’s races, building on his comeback to fourth in the sprint - all valuable points in the long title hunt:

“I’m happy and I’m disappointed, my target and my goal coming into this weekend was to extend my championship lead. No matter what anyone says I would always rather be leading the championship, whether its by one point, eleven points, 100 points,you know - the goal is always to be leading.

I’ve ticked that box, I didn’t feel that good on the bike all weekend…because I’ve had to over-ride through the weekend I feel exhausted and that race was just honestly so much easier I sat at the front and just said if I can do a 48 flat and I’m not going to stress my body, I’m not going to stress the bike, see what we can do.

The slight disappointment in it is maybe , the fact that I wasn’t able to quite put up as much of a fight but at the end of the day ill take another podium…I look at the war not the battle, it’s a long season.

Race two winner Kyle Ryde went from the elation of his first Knockhill win to bike issues, but after a brief battle on track as the #77 went backwards his LAMI OMG teammate was ready to pick up the podium finish he exited from.

‘It’s been a really good weekend’

Vickers was clearly pleased with his and the bikes improved performance this weekend at Knockhill:

“It’s been a really good weekend..once we’ve been outside the top five, every other session, qualifying we’ve been inside the top five, front rows, made one mistake in the first first race, which could have been costly, but we managed to come back and bag the seventh.

I knew I had the pace, I really did, as soon as I was on my own I set a real good strong pace, in that last race we had great pace again I was in a great position, I see other people were struggling, Kyle was struggling a little bit, which I was surprised about.

I knew with Iddon and that in front of me, that from the race before his tyre dropped massively at the end, so I was kind of using my tyre, playing it calm and it came to me at the end, I overtook the guys with a fair few laps to go at the end , which was nice, I was able to put a bit of time into, it was three seconds at the line, so really happy.

Vickers will be hoping to keep that positive momentum going into the next round, his home races, at Snetterton.