15-year-old Rhys Irwin from Kilmacrennan took the win during his debut appearance at Mallory Park UK over the weekend.
Having just completed his Junior Cert exams Rhys had to undertake a last minute dash from Donegal to Mallory, but dealt with the pressure well to qualify third for the first of four Aprilia RRV450GP races.
A good performance in Saturday’s opening encounter saw the Oasis Bar Letterkenny and Clean Rubber sponsored rider improve his lap times by almost a second to take his first podium of the weekend, which he then followed up with a second later that afternoon.
Sunday’s race three began with a wet but drying track and Rhys put in his strongest ride of the season so far, to improve his lap times once again, taking fastest race lap on his way to his first Thundersport win of 2017.
The final race of the weekend saw Rhys go even quicker on his way to a close second place finish, which was enough to move him up to second place overall in the Championship.
“That was another strong weekend for us on a new track and I’m delighted to get my first 450cc win of the year.” said Rhys following his final podium of the weekend.
“Due to my exams I could not travel with the team so I have to say an enormous thank you to Wesley from our sponsors Clean Rubber who drove from Sligo to Donegal to collect me straight after my exam, took me to the boat and then drove through the night to get me to Mallory Park.
“We made some major suspension changes over the four races and I’m much happier now and really looking forward to Rockingham at the end of July”.
Older brother Caolán Irwin was also happy with his weekend.
He said: “Once again this weekend we have shown we have the pace. This 600 cc Championship has experienced top riders so for my first year I’m further on than I thought and I’m happy that we picked up more championship points and I’m really happy with my times as I was just 0.8 of a second off the lap record held by World Supersport racer Luke Stapleford.
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“After another strong weekend we are still in the hunt for a top three championship finish with just under half the season left to go”.
Irwin Racing’s next event will be a return to the Masters Superbike Championship at Mondello Park on July 15th and 16th where Rhys will be looking to continue his winning run in the Lightweight Supersport Class and Caolán will be out to add to his two Supersport ‘Cup’ victories from his last Masters appearance.
Following the Masters, the next Thundersport GB rounds will take place at Rockingham on July 29th & 30th.
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