Be Wiser Ducati’s Glenn Irwin finished in second in the final MCE British Superbike race at Oulton Park, which is the Northern Irishman’s best BSB result to date.

There was a lot to celebrate in the PBM garage as it was the first time since Knockhill in 2015 that two Paul Bird Motorsport bikes were one-two on the podium, as Shane Byrne took the victory in race two.

It was not an easy podium finish for Irwin as he ‘dug deep’ to fend off the challenges from Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran in the final part of the race. But at one point the Ducati rider was as far down as seventh and was locked in a fight on track with Brookes, Iddon and Mossey.

His Panigale gained pace and he was able to bag some rostrum credits and Irwin is now fifth in the overall standings, after finishing race one in ninth.

“It was a really frantic race and we had a much better bike underneath us to make the passes. I took it quite easy on the tyre at the beginning and then things got quite frantic and tyre management went out of the window and it reminded me of the old Supersport races,” said Irwin at the track.

“The incident happened ahead and I saw Shakey in the lead and I was down in seventh and dug really deep and everyone in the race was riding really well. I dug as deep as I ever dug to get the podium and big thanks to PBM.”