Irwin Takes North West 200 Superbike Double
Grid Talk Reporter 15:14 16/05/2022
Glenn Irwin’s dominance of the Superbike class at the North West 200 continued on Saturday as he won both races onboard his official Honda Fireblade.
The results mean that Irwin has now won the last six Superbike races to be held on the Triangle Circuit, and he has done so with three different manufacturers - Ducati, Kawasaki and Honda. “Job done,” Irwin said. “When I came here, I’d had success before at the North West 200, but to come here with Honda was something else and we arrived at a time where my BSB career has taken a huge step forward, so we arrived probably with me riding the best I have ever ridden. You do put pressure on yourself, you’ve won here before and you feel like you can do it again, but it never works like that, you have to fight for it, and you can’t be complacent. Fair play to my team, today has just been a dream! We came here to win the big ones and the level here is so high, so to win both the Superbike races this year and lead that calibre of field is such a good feeling.”
Irwin was pushed all of the way in the opening race by Davey Todd on his Milenco by Padgett’s Motorcycles Fireblade. Irwin led from the start of the race but was unable to escape the clutches of Todd, who took the lead of the race on lap three after a move at York Corner, only to be overtaken by Irwin at the Ballysally Roundabout. The pair exchanged positions again before the end of the lap, with Richard Cooper catching them after setting a new lap record of 123.874mph. Irwin returned to the front on lap four after upping the lap record to 124.463mph. Todd dived down the inside of Irwin at Magherabuoy on the final lap, only to run wide at Metropole, allowed Irwin through to take victory by 0.253 seconds.
Cooper joined them on the podium, whilst Josh Brookes finished fourth on the MCE Ducati V4 R. Alastair Seeley completed the top five ahead of Conor Cummins, James Hillier and Michael Rutter. Ian Hutchinson and Nathan Harrison completed the top 10. Chaos ensued prior to the start of the feature Superbike race with all riders using Dunlop Tyres (24 riders) withdrawing from the race on safety grounds. It was revealed that Dunlop had found an issue with a batch of their Superbike tyres. Images were circulated online of shredded tyres in the earlier Superbike race, whilst video footage emerged of Michael Dunlop’s rear tyre coming apart at speed on the Coast Road.
As a result, only those using Metzeler Tyres took part. Todd, Peter Hickman, Brian McCormack, Lee Johnston, Dunlop, Cummins and Dean Harrison were just some of the names missing from race two. Irwin started from pole once again and with his main challenger unable to race, crossed the line with a comfortable 2.494 seconds lead over Cooper. Brookes completed the podium on his Ducati, with Hutchinson and John McGuinness completing the top five. Hillier was sixth ahead of Rutter, Phillip Crowe, Craig Neve and Lukas Maurer completing the top 10. “I want to thank everyone who has helped and supported me along the way, the team, Honda UK, my family, my friends and all my sponsors, as well as the North West 200 organisers, its sponsors the marshals and everyone behind the scenes who makes the event happen, and of course the supporters,” Irwin added. “The last lap of the feature Superbike race was incredible; it was so overwhelming with the support out there along the course.”
