The BeerMonster Ducati team head to Oulton Park this weekend for the opening round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship Showdown, ready to continue their quest for a ninth title and to pay tribute to Team Owner Paul Bird who sadly passed away earlier this month.
Tommy Bridewell and Glenn Irwin arrive in Cheshire locking out the leading two positions in the championship standings, having between them won a total of 13 races and scored a further 14 podiums during the Main Season.
The pair are separated by just 14.5 points at the top of the standings ahead this weekend, and return to Oulton Park knowing that earlier in the season they both claimed a victory whilst Irwin secured three podium finishes.
Irwin said: “Firstly, it has been an absolute honour and privilege to have not just made my British Superbike Championship debut back in 2016 with Paul’s team, for which I am forever thankful for, but also my first BSB win and podium was all under Paul’s guidance. Then to this year to be a part of a team that was able to bring such an emotion of happiness at times as we have seen on display with the victories and the results within the team. To be a part of that along with Tommy has been something that I will take as a bit of comfort, knowing that we bought a smile to Paul’s face at times when his health was not so good.
“There is a serious winning mentality in PBM - the strongest winning mentally that I have ever witnessed, whether it be in racing or it be in any walk of life. It takes a huge character to be able to instill that into a team in such a way that when you are in PBM the aura you know is about winning. With Paul now passing, that aura is still very much there - that feeling of what is demanded of you in PBM and it takes such a big character to be able to instill that, which will remain now that he has gone.
“Obviously we are onto the Showdown part of the championship and the points system changes; I haven’t looked at it too much – I guess it is probably a positive mindset that I have looked at what first gets and what second gets and I couldn’t tell you what third or after that gets! I am very aware of how much mindset is in racing and I feel like it has been bang on all year and if anything, I think that it is strengthening.
“I have a great feeling and I have said it all year, and despite the tough times for the team of late with the news of Paul, I still have a great feeling of how this season’s chapter ends. I have continued to target Tommy and we have beaten him in five of the last six. I feel that momentum is with me, as it was with him in the middle part of the season and I would be ignorant to ignore that as he did a fantastic job at that part of the year. Right now, I want to continue with the momentum that I feel we have the upper hand and to continue to build on that, and most of all, put on a good show for not just Paul, but all the fans of PBM who I am sure were also saddened by the news.
“Oulton Park is one where when I went there on the Honda last year and came within 0.1 of a victory against Tommy on the Ducati and that was a big realisation. It is a track that I always enjoy, but a track that I was now a potential winner at, and that came true this year at round two when we now have a package that was more of a favoured one for Oulton Park. We put that to good use with our first win of the season so we had a third, second and a first that weekend. I think the longer the season goes on, you get to know the bikes strengths, you get to know your strengths, and you see a pattern of what corners and sections of circuits you are good at and what type of areas you need to improve, so I think the entire Showdown rounds suit my strengths a little bit better.
“They are also tracks that we are going back to for the first time on the Ducati, which with experience, we usually get better at most things in life. So let’s hope that we can put the experience that we now have, arriving back at a track for the first time this year, into practice. Experience is always something nice to be able to add to the locker, so I feel like my armory has been improved a little bit. Like I say, it will definitely be a sad round with a lot of emotion and tributes, but I look forward to putting on the best possible show. I usually try to just think of myself in racing, and although Tommy is my nearest championship challenger he is also my teammate and is going through the pain that we are all going through, so I hope the two of us put on the best show possible this weekend.”
Bridewell said: “In my own personal experience, Paul welcomed me to the team with open arms and to be honest, he gave me the opportunity to sort of showcase what I am really capable of doing. All I was focused on was repaying him for taking that chance on me.
“For me it is obviously a tough one, because I hadn’t had a huge amount of time with Paul, but I felt in the time that we did have, he was brilliant, and it’s just really sad because we both knew what we are going to and are capable of achieving, which is great things as a team.
“It’s sad for me that I not had more time to have Paul there in the garage to give me his words of wisdom, shall we say like he did. But in the same aspect, for me, the main thing was always that he gave me the opportunity and I took it with both hands and I am grateful that I was able to showcase to him, just how good – with the right team and the right bike that he gave me that I am.
“There were some nice words from him; I know that he had said to Stacey why had it taken so long for us to team up, why had we not teamed up beforehand and it was just obviously different circumstances and different reasons, our time frames never aligned before. And then he said to me at Brands Hatch, he had a tear in his eye to be honest, ‘I love you’. It was nice that we were able to gel so well. There would have been a lot of people who would have thought that perhaps me and Paul Bird would not have been the happy marriage as such as it was, but again, like Paul and like I like to do, we seemed to prove a lot of people wrong.
“This weekend I go into like any other weekend and that is to do the best job I possibly can for myself and the team and for Paul. I feel like what we’ve been doing this year has been a good enough job, there is a reason why we’ve managed to win seven races, and however many fastest laps, and however many podiums along the way as well.
“I think just because we had a very difficult Thruxton, people will always judge potentially on that round, but really for me, Cadwell started a little bit more difficult than I expected. The main thing for me though, was to finish the weekend with a win, and to be honest, to be able to win in the way I did was nice.
“So I think the main thing for me, leaving Cadwell after a really tough weekend, was really getting the bike bang on for the last race. It kind of put me back to that same feeling, that same environment and that same riding way that I had at Snetterton and Brands Hatch. All I’m focused on is winning races and to be honest, I think if I carry on doing what I’ve done all year, and I keep on winning races, then the championship should take care of itself.”