Irwin Brothers Excel At Assen

Be Wiser Ducati’s Glenn Irwin put in a pair of solid performances in the two Bennetts British Superbike Championship races at Assen yesterday to finish in fourth and fifth places and remain well in contention for third place overall in this year’s series.

And with younger brother Andrew taking a fine sixth place in race two, it marked a good day’s work for the Penrith-based team in a dramatic weekend of action at the Dutch track in the penultimate round of the 2018 campaign.

After qualifying in fourth, Glenn started the first 18-lap race on the factory-backed Be Wiser Ducati Panigale R from the head of the second row of the grid, although he slipped back to sixth at the completion of the first lap. Here was where he remained until lap five when he moved ahead of Christian Iddon to take fifth and with a succession of quick, consistent laps he began to reduce the gap to the leading four riders.

As the race went into its second half, the 28 year old from Carrickfergus was unable to match their pace around the 2.82-mile TT circuit and he completed the race in a solid fifth place, four seconds adrift of fourth but two seconds clear of sixth.

It meant he started the second race from sixth on the grid and on the second row once more but although he completed the first lap in eighth, a crash at the end of lap two saw him involved with the fallen Dan Linfoot and dropped back to 15th place as a result. 

A safety car period allowed the group to bunch up once more and when racing resumed, Glenn set about moving up the leaderboard and with a series of overtaking manoeuvres he put in a brilliant ride to claim fourth place at the chequered flag. With 24 points taken on the day, the Northern Irishman now sits in fourth place overall but just three points behind third placed Josh Brookes with three races to go.

Younger brother and Be Wiser Ducati team-mate Andrew also suffered in the opening laps of the first race, dropping back from his qualifying position of 14th to 17th and although his lap times were very similar to those riders running inside the top ten, the 24 year old was unable to make any major advances forward and finished in 16th place, just outside the points.

He started race two from the middle of the sixth row in 17th place but benefited from the mayhem on the opening laps and found himself in 11th place on lap five. This soon became tenth and when Glenn overhauled him, he set a similar pace to move through the pack too. It looked like he’d take seventh place but a good pass on Christian Iddon on the final lap allowed him to claim sixth place, the second-best finish in his short BSB career.