IN
THE
WIND
P42
British
Superbike
Gets
Underway at
Donington
Park
A
ndrew Irwin sensationally
doubled up on victories dur-
ing a dramatic opening round of
the Bennetts British Superbike
Championship at Donington
Park, August 8-9; however it
took a dramatic change in race
three when he was involved in
an incident with Josh Brookes,
which later saw him disqualified
from the result.
The Irwin brothers had been
formidable all weekend with the
new Honda Racing Fireblade,
and after their one-two finish in
the opening race of the season
when Andrew pipped Glenn on
the final lap, the pair were shap-
ing up for another intense battle
in Sunday's two races.
Glenn Irwin had been holding the
lead throughout race two, but yet
again Andrew Irwin struck on the
final lap, putting the brakes on his
brother to double up his achieve-
ment for Honda Racing in an in-
credibly close battle for the victory.
The pair looked set to reignite
their sibling rivalry in race three,
and after fighting their way up the
order, they were in the battle for
the podium positions in the clos-
ing stages after Tommy Bridewell
delivered a dominant perfor-
mance. The Oxford Products
Racing Ducati rider led from the
start and edged an advantage
to become the second different
race winner of the season.
By lap 24 Glenn Irwin was
into second and Brookes split
the Honda Racing teammates,
however disaster struck as An-
drew Irwin made contact with the
VisionTrack Ducati rider at Hol-
lywood sending him crashing out
at high-speed and into the safety
fence. The Australian was able
to walk away from the incident,
but he was out of contention.
The race result was then subse-
quently under investigation by
Race Direction.
As they crossed the line Bride-
well won by 2.064s ahead of
Andrew and Glenn Irwin. However,
following a long deliberation by
the Race Direction panel, it was
announced that Andrew Irwin
would be disqualified for his part
in the incident for avoidable and
unfair contact causing a collision
and crash with Brookes. Irwin also
receives six penalty points and he
will start his next Bennetts BSB
race from the last grid position.
Glenn Irwin leads his brother
by 10 points in the championship
standings ahead of Snetterton. CN
Race One
Race Two Race Three
