BSB: Irwin: 'I can win this weekend'

Glenn Irwin is adamant he can win races at Brands Hatch this weekend after a strong start on Friday.

The Be Wiser Ducati rider set the quickest time in FP1, which ended up being the quickest time of the day after rainfall ahead of the second session.

Irwin’s former team-mate Shane Byrne has done the double at the summer Brands round for the last two years, heaping the pressure on the Northern Irishman who was promoted to the team’s number one rider after Byrne’s testing crash.

Hoping to try a number of upgrades from Ducati ahead of qualifying tomorrow, Irwin is determined to claw back some showdown points after an up and down few rounds.

“We’ve been strong all year, we took a big step at Oulton but duffed it up, we were strong at Snetterton and then Knockhill is a circuit that doesn’t suit our bike and never has, Shakey never won there on it, but we weren’t too far away,” he told MCN.

“We’re now here at a track that suits the Ducati a bit more, we’re back on a level playing field. It was nice to be fastest this morning but what is important is how regularly you can stick those times in and we did eight 1’25 laps on the same tyre in that session and people were sticking tyres in towards the end.

“We’ve a few things to try, some little upgrades from Ducati that should improve the bike in some areas. It’s nothing big, just repositioning a few things – it’s something we were going to try in FP2 but it rained so we’ll try it in the morning.

“I’m confident, I believe I can win this weekend and we need to claw some showdown points back.”