Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki celebrate success as Glenn Irwin secures a brace of top ten finishes during Round 4 of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch this weekend (14^th to 16^th June).

Fresh from their successful campaign at the Isle of Man TT Races, the team resumed their challenge for the championship at the 2.43-mile Grand Prix circuit.

The Northern Ireland rider qualified in 14^th for the first of Sunday’s two races with team-mate Héctor Barberá lining up in 23^rd place, the Spaniard visiting the Kent circuit for the first time suffering a spill in the third free practice session.

The good conditions of Friday and Saturday were replaced by rain showers on Sunday and the first 20-lap race started with a damp track albeit with the sun shining.

Barberá struggled in the conditions and could only manage 24^th place but Irwin made good progress on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR despite dropping back to 16^th in the early stages. By lap 14, he’d moved up two places and from there on in he continually moved forward with tenth place, his second top ten finish of the season, the end result.

With the third fastest lap of the race, the 29-year old started the second encounter from the front row of the grid and although he dropped back during the race, at one stage as low as 13^th, he regrouped and became involved in a good four-rider battle for tenth.

Positions changed all the time but he got stronger as the race wore on and eventually came out on top to take his second tenth-place finish of the day and his third top ten finish of the season.

Barberá, meanwhile, starting from the back row, again found the race around the demanding circuit challenging but did improve to 20^th place.

The meeting also included the second round of the Molson Group British Sidecar Championship but it proved to be a mixed weekend for the two crews of Ricky Stevens/Ryan Charlwood and Ben Holland/Lee Watson.

Former British Champions Stevens/Charlwood qualified in second place for Saturday’s first race and led in the early stages but an overtaking manoeuvre at Clearways by Ben and Tom Birchall resulted in the two outfits crashing out together on the fifth lap.

Although no bones were broken, the duo were both left battered and bruised and had to withdraw from the remainder of the meeting.

That just left Holland/Watson to fly the flag and having finished in fourth place in the first race, they went one better in Sunday’s second encounter to claim an excellent third-place finish and their first podium of the season.

The results moved them to sixth overall in the championship standings.

Glenn Irwin said: “It’s been a positive day with two top ten finishes, I said on Friday this is where I wanted to finish. I felt perhaps we could push for a top eight in race two but I made too many mistakes early on and dropped back to 13th. I managed to fight back up the pack and we had really good pace, but we’ve made a big step forwards this weekend.

“We need to make the bike better on a new tyre and work better at the start as the pace at the end is good. It’s frustrating but we are going in the right direction. We just have to work hard on the opening ten laps of the race at every circuit and I’m looking forward to Knockhill.”

Héctor Barberá said: “It was a very difficult weekend, the track is not easy. FP3 is very important for me and we lost so much track time with the crash and the weather conditions, it made it very hard.

“I’ve not ridden the bike in the wet so this was also new for me. In the first race I had a little problem with the bike and in the second race we changed to a softer spring but this wasn’t the right option for me. It was very tough, the bike is very fast and possible to run at the front.”

Jack Valentine, Team Manager, added: “We have definitely got a happier rider with Glenn and it now feels like his motorcycle but there is still quite a bit of work to do.

“He lost places early on in race two which if he hadn’t done we could have been battling for a top six, where we are aiming for.

“He dropped from third to about 13th and he fought back to 10th beating the two Hondas. It’s not where we want to be but we will continue to work hard and move forwards with Glenn.

“It was a really tough weekend for Héctor, he lost set-up time after the crash in FP3 and the wet conditions didn’t give him the track time he needed on a new track to move forwards.

“Onwards and upwards to Knockhill and I hope we can be back at the sharp end.”

Ryan Charlwood said: “This has been a very difficult weekend, but we have to thank our team for their tireless work to put things right on the bike on Friday.

“We thoroughly enjoyed our battle against the current world champions, but it’s been a huge disappointment to have missed a race.

“We both hope to make a full recovery and get the bike back in action ahead of next weekend’s Massingberd-Mundy Lincoln Red Beef International Sidecar Revival at Cadwell Park.”

Lee Watson said: “After a couple of difficult years, it’s been an adventure joining the Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki team.

“After testing in March, we were delighted to have qualified in eighth at Oulton Park, despite Ben’s collar bone injury, but then to not finish the race there was really disappointing.

“By contrast this weekend has been very different and we’re really pleased with our first podium of the season. Obviously, we’re sorry for our team-mates Ricky and Ryan, but we’re glad that both of them are ok.”  

To keep up to date with the latest news from Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki you can visit the website or follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Bennetts British Superbike Championship standings (after four rounds)

1 Tommy Bridewell (Ducati) 145pts

2 Scott Redding (Ducati) 131

3 Josh Brookes (Ducati) 124

4 Tarran Mackenzie (Yamaha) 108

5 Danny Buchan (Kawasaki) 94

6 Xavi Fores (Honda) 75

16 Glenn Irwin (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) 26

18 Héctor Barberá (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) 18

23 Ben Currie (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) 3

Molson Group British Sidecar Championship standings (after two rounds)

1 Kershaw/Clark (LCR Yamaha) 65pts

2 Ellis/Richardson (LCR Honda) 54

3 Christie/Christie (LCR Yamaha) 42

4 Peach/Edwards (LCR Yamaha) 30

5 Biggs/Schmitz (LCR Honda) 30

6 Holland/Watson (LCR Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) 29