NW200: Irwin in class of his own with Superbike double

Glenn Irwin had a day to remember as the British Superbike rider dominated both feature races at the North West 200.

Irwin clinched his maiden win at the event in 2017 after edging out Alastair Seeley in the main Superbike race in a breathless finish.

However, he was in a class of his own on Saturday at the international road race in Northern Ireland, where he led all the way in both races on the PBM Be Wiser Ducati.

The 28-year-old had a lead of 3.7 seconds after the first lap in race one and maintained his advantage until a false neutral caused him to run on at the Juniper chicane on the fourth lap.

As Irwin paused in the stop-box, his lead was whittled down to less than one second by Dean Harrison on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki, but he soon powered clear again.

He won by one second from Harrison as he slowed on the last lap, with Michael Rutter taking third on the Bathams BMW.

A jubilant Irwin said he hoped his win lifted the spirits in Paul Bird’s team after BSB champion Shane Byrne was injured in a crash during the Snetterton test.

“The sun shone all day and the crowd was huge so with it being a hard week for the team after Shakey’s accident, hopefully today’s wins have lifted everyone’s spirits,” he said.

“It’s just been an awesome day. I managed to get the holeshot in both races and just got my head down which allowed me to break the tow of the other riders.

“With clear road, you can ride almost the perfect lap and the support I was getting from the crowd was unreal – I didn’t need a pit-board as the crowd were giving me all the signals I needed.”

Irwin repeated the trick in the feature Superbike race, leading all the way to complete his double by almost 10 seconds from Michael Dunlop, who was a retirement in race one on the Tyco BMW.

Lee Johnston was third on the Honda Racing Fireblade followed by Martin Jessopp, Conor Cummins and Dean Harrison.

Alastair Seeley could only finish 10th after a dreadful start on the Tyco BMW. The 24-time winner also suffered misfortune in the first race, when he received a five-second penalty for jumping the start.

Seeley won the Supersport and Superstock races to complete a treble, coming after his Supersport victory on the EHA Racing Yamaha in Thursday’s opening race.

The two-time British champion has now increased his record to 24 wins since his maiden triumph at the North West 200 in 2008.