British Superbikes - Silverstone: Irwin survives last lap battle for double

Glenn Irwin held off Kyle Ride in a supreme last lap battle for victory after Bradley Ray slipped out of contention in race two of the opening British Superbikes weekend at Silverstone.

Lisa Lewis

17 Apr 2022

Glenn Irwin, Honda British Superbike Silverstone

On a high after his race one win, Glenn Irwin had six extra laps to deal with in the second race of the opening BSB round of the National track at Silverstone.

Proving to be no issue to his pre-season injuries with starting from fourth proving a bigger challenge, the Fireblade survived an early attack from his brother Andrew before being able to mount a charge on the lead trio in the race.

Once on par after setting up a pass at Copse on lap seventeen the Honda Racing Uk rider immediately piled on the pressure moving past pole man Kyle Ryde by lap twenty.

An error at the front saw long term leader Bradley Ray slip out of contention two laps later, but the win was not as assured as it felt in the same stage of Saturday’s race.

The duel came to a head on the final lap, with Ryde taking one final lunge for the win, forcing his Yamaha underneath Irwin, trying to use his strong breaking to his advantage. The brave move did not pay off, with Irwin closing the angle and demanding Ryde pull out or force contact, with only the run to the line left to claim victory.

The win gives the number two a perfect track record and 50 points in his title tally, with Ryde having been second in both races on 40 in the championship standings.

The podium was completed by Rory Skinner, with three different manufacturers represented on the podium after his Kawasaki came home in third.

Rory Skinner goes from strength to strength

After a standout race one performance which saw the Kawasaki put in a late charge to catch the leaders, but fall just short, while leaving Skinner clear of the rest of the pack, there was room for the FS-3 Racing rider to build.

This time starting from an improved third, and with overnight alterations made, it was immediately clear that the changes had made all the difference with the number eleven this time able to run at the front, while again gapping the chasing group.

Third marks a first podium of the year for the Scottish rider, and moves him up to third in the overall standings after a solid start to the season.

Fourth went to his team-mate Lee Jackson who moved up into the position with five laps remaining.

He passed Jason O’Halloran for the place, with Andrew Irwin also putting in a pass to claim fifth for Synetiq BMW Motorrad, the manufacturers top finisher.

O’ Halloran, who enjoys a strong record at Silverstone, was back on top for morning warm-up after dominating the Friday practice sessions, demonstrating again he has the pace to run at the front for McAMS Yamaha in the absence of his team-mate - reigning champion, Tarran Mackenzie.

Working on his set-up during that warm-up initially paid dividends as he looked more competitive but faded towards the end of the race to sixth as the longer race distance brought tyre wear into play.

A late charge from Peter Hickman saw him propel the FHO Racing BMW up to seventh, passing Tommy Bridewell on the Oxford Products Ducati and forcing him to settle for eighth.
Danny Buchan brought home the second Synetiq Ducati home in ninth, a slight improvement on yesterday’s result.

Christian Iddon was fighting in the same group and did enough to give the Buildbase Suzuki a top ten finish.

Josh Brookes improved a couple of places from his race one result, in eleventh at the tricky National layout this time around for MCE Ducati.

Dan Linfoot was right behind in an exciting run to the line for iForce BMW taking a twelfth place finish after recovering from almost getting tangled in the last crash of the race.

FHO Racing’s Josh Vickers went one better in 13th with Honda Racing’s Tom Neave 14th.

After yesterday’s DNF a new engine was added to former Championship winner Leon Haslam’s Lee Hardy Racing Kawasaki, which gave him the reliability to finish, but down in 15th , taking his first point of the season.

Crash filled race two takes out the leader

Rory Skinner fell from the lead but was not the only rider to exit in a crash filled race -
A huge lap one crash at Becketts took out Luke Mossey, Storm Stacey and Dan Jones.

Lap three saw Tom Sykes highside out of contention, with Chrissy Rouse left nowhere to go ahead, runnning into the back of the bike in front.

Josh Owens, Bjorn Estement and Dean Harrison also all saw their race end in the gravel.

There is one more shot to take points at Silverstone today with race three at 4:30pm this afternoon to complete the opening BSB weekend.