Top Five for Irwin at Thruxton

The Be Wiser Ducati Racing team had a challenging seventh round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Thruxton today with Glenn Irwin’s fifth place finish on the FUCHS Silkolene-backed Be Wiser Ducati Panigale R in the opening race proving to be the team’s best result of the day.

28-year-old Glenn started the opening 20-lap race on pole position with younger brother Andrew joining him in third to post an historic front row for Paul Bird’s Penrith-based team. The opening lap saw the Carrickfergus brothers slot into third and fourth place but sadly for Andrew, his race only lasted until lap four when he crashed out at the Complex, fortunately sustaining no injury.

That just left Glenn to fly the flag for the defending champions and he consistently ran with the front group which ultimately became a six-rider battle for the win. Going into the final stages, Irwin found himself pushed back to sixth but a last lap collision at the chicane between Josh Brookes and Jason O’Halloran allowed him to move back up to fifth place for 11 hard-earned points.

The second race saw Glenn start from sixth place and on the second row of the grid although he immediately slipped back to ninth at the completion of the first lap. Indeed, it proved to be a tough race and although he climbed as high as seventh at one stage, he didn’t have the means to push any further and ended the race in ninth place. However, he still sits in fourth place overall, comfortably occupying one of the top six Showdown positions.

Andrew, meanwhile, found himself way back in 18th place and on the sixth row as a result of his first race crash and it gave him plenty of work to do. A good opening lap saw him gain four places to move up to 14th and although progress was a bit slower for the remainder of the race, he worked his way up to 11th at the chequered flag to add five more points to his season’s haul.