Donington Park saw a welcome return to the Bennetts British Superbike Championship podium for Andrew Irwin, the Synetiq BMW rider taking second place in the final race of the weekend.It marked a first appearance on the rostrum since taking a third place finish at the opening round at Silverstone and was just reward for a recent upturn in form that hasn’t always yielded the results he deserved.
Since Thruxton in August, the younger of the two Irwin brothers’ pace has seem him run regularly in the top ten only for a combination of mechanical issues and crashes to prevent him getting regular top six finishes.
However, a strong meeting at Cadwell Park meeting at the end of August saw him take a sixth and a brace of sevenths and while things have conspired against him since then, Donington finally saw him get what he deserved with a fourth in Sunday’s first race followed by the runner-up spot in the final race at the Leicestershire venue. “It was a positive weekend and I needed to get a result,” he said afterwards. “I’ve been fast in races recently but haven’t managed to put the weekend together; this time I did and I knew I had a bike capable of a podium in each race. “I knew we could do a good job and the podium in race three was a result of that.
I rode a bit tight at the end as I haven’t been on the podium since round one but I’m delighted to be back on the rostrum. We had no crashes and are going in the right direction so let’s finish the season strongly at Brands.”