Glenn Irwin: “We fired our own warning shots” at 2025 BSB opener

Having been on the podium in both races and shown strong pace at the opening round of the 2025 British Superbike Championship, Glenn Irwin says he expects to be fighting at the front again at this weekend’s Donington Park BSB.

Irwin was third in Race 1 at Oulton Park and second in Race 2 having come from over three seconds back of the leaders to be within a-tenth-of-a-second by the finish; before Race 3 was cancelled following the crash in British Supesport Race 2 that resulted in the deaths of Shane Richardson and Owen Jenner.

“Looking ahead to the weekend you almost feel a little bit guilty, because obviously we all want to continue to pay our respects to Owen [Jenner] and Shane’s [Richardson] families, and when we look back at Oulton Park, the whole event is overshadowed by this sadness,” Irwin said ahead of round two at Donington.

“But if I was to look just purely at the riding side of things and the teamwork, I felt we did a good job.

“We had some difficult moments but we did well to come from 14th to second in Race 1 and particularly Race 2 – after four laps we were 3.3 seconds off and eight laps later to only be 0.1 seconds off the win was very pleasing.

“I think as riders, we all know what we achieved in terms of race pace over the two races, we only ever took time out of Bradley [Ray] and Leon [Haslam] and for me that was confidence inspiring.

“I think we fired our own warning shots without winning races which is important for our own confidence and important to cement ourselves in the thoughts of our rivals as well.”

Irwin added that he expects some more riders to be in the mix at Donington compared to Oulton Park.

“This weekend and the whole championship in general is going to be close,” he said.

“The three of us who were in it at Oulton will be there, I expect Kyle (Ryde) to be there and Danny Kent to also join the party this weekend. It’s going to be a good one.”