Tyco BMW newbie Glenn Irwin has hailed the S1000RR package after finishing 10th in this morning’s final Bennetts British Superbike practice in just his second day with the team.
The Carrickfergus rider made a late switch to the Moneymore squad this week after a dreadful start to the season with Quattro JG Speedfit Kawasaki, and says he’s already getting to grips with German power.
Irwin believes there’s much more to come out of the brand new Beemer, especially with a strong-handling chassis and impressive stock powerplant which allowed him to bag a top-10 spot in practice, just over half a second off the top.
“It was a really positive start yesterday with the bike,” he revealed. “I didn’t know how it would be with my eye and my first time on the Tyco BMW, but I’m really impressed with the bike for the first time out.
“It’s got a lot of potential and it’s doing a lot of the things I want it to do. I started better than I expected this weekend.
“The bike’s very nimble, so it’s quite easy to make it do what you want it to do. To get the final bit is never easy in this game, but it does a lot of things and you don’t need as much effort to do it. It’s quite a good turning bike.
“With a stock engine, I slipstreamed past my old bike there with Ben Currie on it and he’s quite light, so we know the stock motor is strong.”
While he refuses to dwell on the past, Irwin didn’t mince his words as he compared the BMW to his old Kawasaki superbike.
“It’s totally different but I’m not looking back, I’m looking forward – I’ve forgot about that already.
“Every bike has its differences and this bike [BMW] has its differences, all of them are positives.”
