Glenn Irwin tops British Superbike standings after Oulton Park hat-trick

Irwin moved into the lead of the championship with a clean sweep on the Hager PBM Ducati at the bank holiday meeting at the Cheshire circuit, which hosted round two of the series.

The Carrickfergus man will now turn his attention to the North West, where Irwin is bidding to become the most successful rider ever in the Superbike class.

He has won the last eight races in succession at the north coast road race and is one win behind the Superbike record of nine victories held jointly by Michael Rutter and Joey Dunlop.

The 34-year-old beat his former PBM Ducati team-mate Tommy Bridewell (Honda Racing UK) in the 12-lap Sprint race by three tenths of a second, with Christian Iddon a close third on the Oxford Products Ducati.

In the final race of the weekend, Irwin caught and passed leader Iddon and was able to repel a determined attack on the final laps to wrap up a treble after also prevailing in a battle with Iddon in Sunday’s first race.

Ryan Vickers finished third on the OMG Yamaha, while Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing UK) was 14thand 15th in yesterday’s BSB races respectively.

Hat-trick hero Irwin, who sent best wishes to six competitors who were involved in a multiple pile-up in the BMW Cup race, said: “First of all I think it’s important that we send our best wishes to everyone in the BMW Cup incident.

“Oulton is one of those tracks on the calendar that takes a lot out of you, it takes a lot out of the bike; there is tyre management to it as well… to win three races withstanding a lot of pressure is something that probably pleases me the most about it all.

“(Christian Iddon) was riding incredible and it’s great to see because I know it was maybe a tougher year for him despite being on a Ducati last year.

“He’s back at his local track and I knew that he wanted to win, but I could see he was using a little bit of tyre at the beginning [in Race 3] and I thought okay, you can do that, and then I thought now it’s the time to catch him.

“But it wasn’t as easy as I thought and by that stage I was losing a lot of tyre to get to him. He made one mistake at the chicane and I had to pounce,” he added.

“We’ve got to get through the North West now and then we’ve got Donington Park, which is like riding on a billiard table compared to this week’s surface, so we should be okay there.”

Scottish rider Rory Skinner lost his helmet in a frightening crash in the warm-up session but was later released from hospital and returned to the circuit after a check-up.

In the British Supersport class, Dublin’s Jack Kennedy claimed second for Honda Racing behind Ben Currie in the Feature race, with Eugene McManus from Randalstown in third.

Alastair Seeley, who will miss the North West 200 this week after being unable to secure machinery, was sixth.

Davey Todd won the National Superstock 1000 race for TAS Racing on the Cheshire Mouldings BMW from Eglinton’s David Allingham.

All eyes now turn to the North West 200, with opening practice commencing tomorrow (roads closed 9am-3pm).