The BeerMonster Ducati team of Glenn Irwin and Tommy Bridewell gave their late team owner, Paul Bird, the perfect send-off at Oulton Park for the latest round of the British Superbike Championship, September 16-17, with Irwin taking races one and two and Bridewell clinching the third.
Race one saw Irwin claim the win by 0.3 seconds over Kawasaki’s Lee Jackson and BMW’s Leon Haslam.
Controversy reigned in race two as Irwin was handed the win after winner Bridewell was penalized for unsafe conduct under the Safety Car, dropping him to sixth place. Jackson was again second and Yamaha’s Kyle Ryde was third.
Bridewell had his revenge in race three, taking the race win over Irwin by 1.1 seconds, with Jackson third. The result sees the two BeerMonster Ducati riders at 360.5 points for Irwin, 360 points for Bridewell, with six races remaining in the 2023 BSB title.
“It pleases me a lot how the guys in the team worked and how I rode around here; it’s a physical track,” Irwin said. “We all work very hard. It’s a bit of a cliché when we say we work our asses off, and I guess we all do, and when the team works as hard as you work, if not harder, you get results and reap the reward.
“The championship lead is nice, it’s always a nice position to be in. It’s certainly better than where it was nine races ago when I was 38.5 points behind. We still have that one additional DNF so to be in the lead, pretty much all square with the extra DNF is something that pleases me a lot.”CN
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