Tommy Bridewell left Knockhill after the fourth round of the British Superbikes season with a slightly bigger championship advantage than he arrived with.
Heading into the weekend he held a slender three-point lead over teammate Glenn Irwin in the standings, but following a strong outing on the Fife-based circuit with two fourth-placed finishes and a second-place finish to his name gave him an eight-point lead going to Snetterton at the beginning of July.
But it’s no longer Irwin that follows him – Kyle Ryde is the man now settled in behind the current championship leader, and that’s thanks to an Irwin crash on the second race of the weekend.
Leading the pack with just three laps to go, Irwin looked set to take his second victory of the weekend following a victory on Saturday’s sprint race.
But that all unravelled in the blink of an eye when the Northern Irishman crashed at the Hairpin, promoting Ryde into first to take his fourth victory of the year.
However, Irwin bounced back in fine form come the final race of the weekend to take victory and wrap up BSB’s visit to Scotland.
The BeerMonster Ducati rider had to work for it however and benefitted from a Jason O’Halloran crash – the Yamaha rider had been locked in a battle with Christian Iddon from the beginning of the race, but it was a disappointing end to the weekend for the Australian whose final race of the weekend ended prematurely.
Irwin – promoted up a position thanks to O’Halloran’s crash – eventually made his way past Ryde on lap 10 of the race and quickly set about catching teammate Bridewell for the lead.
He had to remain patient, and eight laps later he pulled the trigger into the first corner, which was all he needed to do as he held off any pressure from behind there on to take the win.
🥇🥇 Round 4 in 🏴 was a good one! Now time to chill in Tenerife with my family! Thanks team yous are the best. Thanks Ducati for the v4r and thanks to my friends, family and sponsors for allowing me the time to do what we do. 🫶 pic.twitter.com/2pZMMO2jN1
— Glenn Irwin (@GIrwinRacing) June 18, 2023
With a second victory wrapped up from the weekend’s action, it was a question of what could have been for Irwin had he not suffered his race two crash.”
It’s a shame what happened in today’s first race as I could have been coming away with a hat-trick but I’m happy with the two wins we had, and I really enjoyed the final race,” he told Paul Bird Motorsport.
“I could see Tommy in the lead and knew when it was time to up the pace as whilst he was strong in some areas, I felt strong all around the circuit.
“He’s improved his braking into the Hairpin all weekend, but the BeerMonster Ducati was strong out of the Hairpin, and I was able to make my move along the straight and into the first corner.
“Two wins out of three means it’s been a pretty good weekend.”
Find the standings after Round 4 here.
Feature Image Credit: @OfficialBSB on Twitter