Three different BSB race winners across Oulton Park round

2023 British Superbike Championship
Round Two – Oulton Park
Monday Superbike

Images by David Yeomans Photography

Josh Brookes had won the opening Superbike bout on Sunday, but come Monday there were two more different winners and Glenn Irwin leaves the Cheshire circuit as the new championship leader with a slender four-point buffer over Brookes and Leon Haslam.

Superbike Race Two

Tommy Bridewell became the fourth different race winner in the 2023 Bennetts British Superbike Championship in the second race at Oulton Park as the BeerMonster Ducati rider held off the pressure from his title rivals to claim victory.

Peter Hickman led the pack into Old Hall on the opening lap as the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad rider grabbed the initial advantage off the line, but he crashed on the exit of the corner unhurt. That gave Bridewell the lead ahead of Andrew Irwin, Kyle Ryde and Leon Haslam.

Jason O’Halloran’s torrid luck at the Cheshire circuit continued when he crashed out unhurt art Cascades on the opening lap and his stricken McAMS Yamaha took Josh Owens down with him.

Ryde was up into second place by the end of the opening lap, but Haslam was moving up the order and he soon was just behind Bridewell and ready to try to fight for the win ahead of Andrew Irwin and brother Glenn.

Haslam was trying to attack Bridewell and defend against Andrew Irwin at the same time, a moment for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad rider at Lodge gave his Honda Racing UK rival the chance to move ahead. However, Haslam was instantly on the attack and back ahead into second by the time they reached Old Hall again.

Bridewell was holding the advantage and the leading group became a pack of five with Bridewell, Haslam, Andrew and Glenn Irwin plus Ryde who later lost ground in the closing stages.

Bridewell made a break over the final three laps to score his first win for BeerMonster Ducati this season, but behind Glenn Irwin had charged into second to make it a 1-2 for Paul Bird’s team.

The fight for third went down to the wire and Andrew Irwin made a move down the inside at Lodge for the final time, but Haslam wasn’t giving up the podium and he managed to regain the advantage on the run over Deer Leap to the chequered flag.

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Andrew Irwin had to settle for fourth place, his best result of the season so far for Honda Racing UK, ahead of Ryde and yesterday’s race winner Josh Brookes who managed to get back ahead of Christian Iddon.

Lee Jackson was eighth for the Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki team with Jack Kennedy once again back inside the top ten for Mar-Train Racing Yamaha team with Dean Harrison taking his first top ten finish of the season for DAO Racing Kawasaki.

Superbike Race Two Results

Superbike Race Three

Glenn Irwin denied Leon Haslam his first race win of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship season as the BeerMonster Ducati rider celebrated his second victory of the season, making it three different race winners at round two. The Northern Irishman now take the standings lead by four points ahead of the next event at Donington Park (May 19/20/21).

Andrew Irwin was the rider with the best launch off the line to lead his brother Glenn and previous champions Josh Brookes and Leon Haslam with race two winner Tommy Bridewell and Kyle Ryde close behind.

On the third lap, Glenn Irwin made a move on his brother for the lead with a dive down the inside at Old Hall, and then Haslam was next to have the Honda Racing UK rider in his sights. The ‘Pocket Rocket’ made a pass of his own on the sixth lap to move into second.

A lap later, Haslam had a huge moment on the ROKiT BMW Motorrad into Old Hall and that meant he lost ground on Glenn Irwin ahead of him that he needed to claw back as he got back into his race rhythm.

Bridewell was then on the move and launched himself into third place to relegate Andrew Irwin back a further position, as Haslam split the BeerMonster Ducati teammates on lap ten.

Glenn Irwin was fending off the challenge but Haslam was typically determined, making a brave move into Old Hall on lap 12. The BeerMonster rider was unsettled, giving his teammate Bridewell the opportunity to move into second place.

Glenn Irwin was back into second at Lodge later on the same lap though with a decisive move on his teammate. He recaptured the lead a lap later when he passed Haslam on the brakes into Hizzys.

The leading pack were inseparable but Glenn Irwin had enough to hold the advantage to the finish on the final lap, with Haslam in second. Behind however, Ryde had been carving his way through and was into third after a dive down the inside on Bridewell at Hizzys with three laps to go.

Ryde held off Bridewell to the finish with Brookes claiming a top five finish ahead of his FHO Racing BMW Motorrad Team teammate Peter Hickman and Oxford Products Racing Ducati’s Christian Iddon.

Lee Jackson moved into eighth on the Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki ahead of Andrew Irwin who eventually finished in ninth and Jason O’Halloran, who worked hard to secure a top ten finish after a 17th place grid start after his race two crash.

Superbike Race Three Results

BSB Rider Quotes

Tommy Bridewell

“It’s been a slightly mixed day as whilst I’m delighted with the race win, I’m disappointed with fourth in the second race. We made a slight change to the chassis, but it wasn’t enough to have made the difference it did, and the bike felt very different in the two races.

“I’m obviously chuffed with race two. It sounds bad to say but it’s a lot easier when you’re following because you’re just watching another rider. The hard part is leading a race – you get a lot more satisfaction when you win and you lead from start to finish because they’ve had the whole race whoever’s behind me to understand where I’m strong and where I’m weak.

“I lost a bit of focus because I knew I could win the race, I knew I’d done the hard work so I was overthinking a little bit, but I regrouped and set a very realistic pace and brought it home to the victory.

“I am really, really ecstatic as much as I’m not climbing off the walls I am really ecstatic. The first one-two for BeerMonster Ducati is brilliant. Everyone thinks I’m invincible at Oulton Park. I’ve won a lot of races here and yes my pace is good and I understand the track.

“I am on the limit every lap but I’m no more superior at Oulton Park than anyone else. I just put myself in the right place at the right time and got the win.”

Glenn Irwin

“It’s been a brilliant day for both myself and the whole BeerMonster Ducati team and you can see the passion within the garage with everyone working really hard.

“I really struggled at the beginning of race two and lost a position when Peter Hickman crashed in front of me, so I had to work hard to get going. I was really happy to come through to second and give PBM a 1-2 and fair play to Tommy, he rode faultlessly.

“We made some changes for the final race which helped in some areas, but I nearly lost the front at Shell whilst I also made a mistake when Leon came by. I got back in front to take victory so let’s keep this run going.”

Josh Brookes

“I was happy in morning warm up, it was wet conditions, but we were fastest. We made a change to the bike for the first race today after what we learnt yesterday, although it looked perfect in theory, as it turns out during the race it didn’t work for me. The change wasn’t so bad on its own but in conjunction with the rest of the bike settings, I just didn’t feel at ease and wasn’t able to do the lap times of earlier, which meant we suffered and didn’t get the results we’d hoped for.

“For the final race the only real option we had was to go back to where we were, which meant the bike was as good as it was in race one, but I feel that maybe our rivals had moved forward a little, not much, but a little. So even though I did better lap times for myself, I wasn’t able to fight for the podium. It was such a small margin, and I was close to the lead group, but just wasn’t able to bridge that gap or make a pass.”

Peter Hickman

“It has been a bit of a frustrating weekend, but on the other hand we must take the positives. We’re fast, we’ve been at the front all weekend, the race yesterday was really strong where we finished fourth coming from eighth on the grid. Today in the first race I got a mega start off the line, and somehow managed to tuck the front at turn one. I don’t really know how or why, I went in tight, but I wasn’t too fast for the corner. I was off the brake, and it was just a bit of an odd crash. Perhaps I had a slightly cold front tyre, but I couldn’t believe I went down at turn one to be honest, it’s not what we expected or what was needed, as it put us on the back foot for the final race of the day.

“Without the crash we’d have learnt something from that first race, which we could have taken into the final race and because of that the pace just wasn’t there. But as I said, we do have to take the positives, which are that we’re fast, Josh is fast and the BMW is working really well, we’ll now just have to wait and see what we can do at Donington Park. But first we have the North West 200 next week!”

British Superbike Championship Points