Glenn Irwin was back in the fight at Brands Hatch as he bounced back from his heavy crash at Snetterton to return to ZYN British Superbike Championship action, claiming a best result of fifth place for the Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing team.
A determined Irwin continued to build momentum throughout the weekend, overcoming the discomfort from his crash two weeks’ earlier and making changes with his crew to score a strong seventh in race one, followed by an eight in race two before celebrating his best result of the weekend in the final race with a fifth place.
Irwin now turns his attention to Oulton Park and is targeting a return to the front of the pack for the Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing team, and aims to be back in podium contention.
Irwin said: “Brands Hatch was a good weekend; to start with I didn’t know if I would even be riding there after the crash at Snetterton. So we obviously arrived knowing it wasn’t going to be an easy weekend as it was the first time back on the bike. In the end on the bike it was not so bad; to start with it was tough with a bit of pain, but as soon as the pace and adrenaline started to come, I felt good.
“In Qualifying I was quite happy with, I felt like I had good speed to do a lap that was probably realistic for fourth completely on my own, but I couldn’t quite piece it all together over every corner, but I was feeling good on the bike.
“Saturday we struggled a little bit with position, maybe due to my injury on the bike, so on Sunday, we made some changes with the bar heights etc, and also changed the throttle on the bike, which made things easier for me.
“I was really pleased with race three and we had consistent pace to finish fifth and to come through, passing some good riders as well, you know it was a strong fifth. For sure, I think we could have fought with Leon, with better earlier lap pace and that is something for me to work on but from mid-race on, we seemed to be quite strong.
“Oulton Park is somewhere where we actually did have a really good end to the weekend at round one and we were probably nowhere to where we are with the bike now, so I am looking forward to going back and much more in-tune with everything.
“I think the guys have the bike in a good window and it is a track that I have always gone well at, so there is no doubt that we can hopefully be targeting a return to the podium again, just like Knockhill. So that is the plan for Oulton Park, three solid results like we had at Brands Hatch, but even more solid and a return to the podium.
"The pace is incredible right now, Kyle is riding the best he has ever rode, probably Max as well, and Scott has shown his form as well with victory in the last race at Brands. So anyone wanting to break into the podium needs to be on their A-Game, and I feel that we are getting closer to bringing that every week.”