Irwin can’t be beaten
BSB star dominates both superbike races at NW200
Glenn Irwin dominated both superbike races at the North West 200, with start-to- finish victories on the Be Wiser Ducati. His expected battle with the Tyco BMW duo of Alastair Seeley and Michael Dunlop never happened as Irwin sped away from the flag in race one to gain a five second lead by the end of the first lap! Untroubled by rivals, Irwin’s only issue was an unforced error. “Sometimes when you’re not pushing to the limit you don’t shift gear as firmly as you should and I hit a false neutral coming into Juniper chicane,” he explained. However he recovered to win by a second from Dean Harrison and Michael Rutter. The second race followed a similar script. Struggling with tyre issues on his Tyco BMW, Michael Dunlop trailed in almost ten seconds behind Irwin. Lee Johnston was third while Seeley never recovered from a poor start and trailed in 10th. Seeley and Irwin both hail from Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland and Irwin put some of his success down to his old traing partner. “I remember Alastair talking about how crucial the coast road section is at the North West, especially from the start to Mill Road.” the 28-year-old explained. “Alastair said the easiest way to do a lap record around here is to be in fourth or fifth and get stacks of slip stream. You have to try to get away by yourself on lap one and get the rest of the field out of your slipstream. That’s what I tried to do and I studied the way he rode his races all week. Then I pulled the pin on the last lap to make a break. Road racing is dangerous and I just wanted to be on my own on the bike.” After setting the fastest lap of the week in windy conditions on lap three (although that’s still almost a second slower than Michael Dunlop’s 2016 outright lap record) Irwin began to revel in the experience of leading Ireland’s biggest road race.
“I started to take it all in and I didn’t need a pit board because everyone was giving me signals about how big my lead was!” he smiled.
Like Seeley, Irwin will not race at the TT against the road racers he trounced at the North West 200 but he said he was delighted to have healed his recent feud with Michael Dunlop.
“We shook hands on the podium and that made my week,” he said.
“We had a bit of craic and there were no issues. We are all competitive and I am not claiming I’m the best road racer in the world. But after Macau last year and my wins today I think I can mention myself in the same breath as Michael Dunlop and he is the best road racer in the world.”