Silverstone BSB: Heroic race one victory for Irwin

Honda’s Glenn Irwin grabbed the opening victory of the 2022 Bennetts British Superbike Championship just six weeks after dramatic injuries looked to curtail his season.

Irwin secured the win leading from pole to flag despite running under pressure for the whole 24 laps from the Rich Energy OMG Racing Yamaha pairing of Kyle Ryde and Bradley Ray. The Northern Irishman having suffered multiple injuries, including fractured vertebrae and pelvis, in a preseason test accident in Spain less than two months ago. Irwin grabbed the lead on the opening lap and led Ryde, Ray, Rory Skinner (FS-3 Racing Kawasaki), Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) and Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Products Ducati) with Leon Haslam dropping back to tenth on the VisionTrack Kawasaki and Tom Sykes (MCE Ducati) holding station in 12th. At the front, the front three soon began to open up a small gap over the rest of the field with Irwin himself opening up a lead of four-tenths of a second over Ryde. At the start of lap six though, Ray overhauled his teammate for second place with Skinner in fourth trying to bridge the gap. Haslam was out though with a technical issue. By lap seven, the leading trio had become a leading quartet with Skinner now on the back wheel of Ryde whilst O’Halloran remained in fifth albeit under strong pressure from Christian Iddon, Andrew Irwin and his Synetiq BMW teammate Danny Buchan. Irwin continued to set the pace at the head of the field with Ray still in second and by lap ten they’d pulled a small gap over Ryde with Skinner dropping back slightly in fourth. Iddon had moved up to fifth ahead of O’Halloran, Andrew Irwin and Bridewell. At half race distance, Irwin, Ray and Ryde had a one second gap over Skinner, Ryde having set a new lap