Carrick rider Irwin takes his first Supersport podium spot

Good progress was made in the initial part of the first race and he converted that into a result in the second part with a solid 11th, although he did climb as high as sixth at one stage.

A good lap time put him eighth on the grid although he struggled off the line and had dropped back to 12th at the completion of the first lap.

By lap three, that had become 14th but from there on in he put in a scintillating ride as he picked off the riders in front of him one by one.

With two laps to go, a podium was very much in his sights and he overtook Leon Haslam to take a brilliant third place in his first year in the class.

A delighted Glenn Irwin reflected on a great weekend: “The team did a really good job this weekend and I’m delighted to have got my first podium. I perhaps could have gone quicker earlier than what I did but to be standing here now in third, after being way off the pace at the beginning of the season is brilliant.”

Alastair Seeley had a terrific qualifying, finishing 8th fastest on the RAF Reserves BMW but it didn’t quite happen in the two races as he retired in race one and finished 22nd in race two.

The Carrick rider said: “ I suppose you could say I’ve gone from hero to zero from qualifying to the races but tyre life has been against us all weekend even though we did make it into Superpole. I had no grip – none on the entry and none on the exit. I couldn’t brake as hard as I wanted to nor get on the gas hard because the bike was going sideways all the time.

“In race one I went with the SC0 option but the rear was coming round and almost highsiding me so I had pull in. Switching to the SC1 for race two didn’t help either so to go from the delight of Superpole to no points is disappointing.”