Silverstone BSB: Irwin ‘learnt a lot’ in unexpected weekend

When Glenn Irwin crashed in testing in Spain last month, and the full catalogue of his injuries came to light, few would have expected him to walk away from the opening round of the British Superbike Championship at Silverstone with all three winner’s trophies – least of all the rider himself.

But that’s exactly what the Honda Racing rider did with, arguably, his three finest rides in the class since making his debut in 2016. The Carrickfergus rider had never done a double on a BSB race weekend before let alone a treble and in doing so became just the ninth rider to achieve the feat. And all achieved after suffering multiple injuries in the testing crash including concussion, fractured vertebrae and pelvis. “Coming into the weekend, things were a bit difficult to say the least and we weren’t able to show our pace in testing,” the now 32-year old said. “With everything that has gone on, Saturday was the first time I was able to do a race run and I learnt a lot in qualifying and where to find the grip, also adapting how I was working the throttle in order to be smoother.” The net result was a start to finish victory in the opening race although many were quick to point out he’d won on the 1.64-mile National circuit in 2021. However, when he came through from fourth on the opening lap of Sunday’s first race to make it two from two, holding off Kyle Ryde on the final lap, it was clear he was riding better than ever. “Saturday was when it started to come good but you can never make predictions in this championship and I learnt a lot in Sunday’s first race by sitting behind the other three boys. The bike was running slightly wide under braking when I released the front brake and whilst it might look good it’s not the best way