Irwins double up to dominate front row

Glenn Irwin has praised his brother Andrew for his maiden front row qualifying result as he stormed to a second consecutive pole position to see Be Wiser Ducati dominate at Thruxton.

Following his first outright pole position coming at Brands Hatch last time out, Irwin has secured back-to-back poles but his brother Andrew grabbed attention by producing his best qualifying result of the year in third place as JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Luke Mossey split the brothers on the front row.

The older Irwin brother has heaped praise on the rookie, outqualifying experienced names like Leon Haslam and Josh Brookes, and is eager to follow-up the performance in tomorrow’s races.

“For me to take pole and have two PBM Be Wiser Ducati bikes on the front row at Be Wiser’s home round, it’s perfect,” Glenn Irwin said. “I was held up a bit so I had to dig deep which is hard to do round here. Big thank you to the team, we’re moving forward.

“It’s tough to get into the top nine for me, for Leon, for Josh Brookes never mind a young kid. I got a pretty good lap and got into turn one and I could see he was ecstatic [Andrew Irwin set a 1m 14.346s in Q2], he did a really good job. To put it on the front row is great.”

Andrew says keeping calm and following his brother was key to his lap record lap in Q2 and is thrilled to be finding pace so early into his BSB career.

Irwin stepped in for the injured Shane Byrne at the PBM squad from Snetterton and has completed just six races so far this year.

“When I followed Glenn in Q2, I didn’t think I had that pace to do a 1m 14.3s and it felt quite easy,” he said. “I knew I’d be in Q3 with that time I just said ‘keep breathing, keep breathing’.

“To make the front row is really good, I’m really happy. Thanks to Glenn, the past few races he has taken me under his wing and every time he has been training, I have been with him, we go cycling and yoga together to keep fit.”