Andrew Irwin scored the MET fonaCAB Racing team their first top ten finish in the ZYN British Superbike Championship last time out on his return from injury at the TT Circuit Assen.
Irwin had been sidelined from action following a testing crash at Knockhill with a broken right humerus, which required surgery and extensive rehabilitation. After missing 18 races, the MET fonaCAB Racing rider was back in action and scored the team their best result of their debut season with a tenth place in race two.
Irwin said: “It was great to be back racing at Assen. Honestly, before the weekend, I still wasn’t sure how I would feel and we were going to see how Friday went and go from there. I hadn’t ridden the 2026 bike before I got injured. I did two track days before Assen, so I knew how it felt and once I got on the superbike I felt much better. So to finish tenth and eleventh, unfortunately we had a bit of a technical problem on Saturday, were two good finishes, which was much better than I was expecting.
“I think honestly, I don’t come racing to finish tenth and eleventh, but with the strength that my body has at the minute, I was very happy. I was really happy for the team too as it was their first top-ten finish. Also for all the people that have stuck behind me during this diffciult time as it’s never easy when a new team gets set up and then I get injured, but they stood by me and I look forward to the final two rounds.
“I am looking forward to Donington Park now, I don’t want to set any expectations there, similar to Assen. Donington is a little bit more physical and we’ll see how my body takes it, but the bike is in a really good place and working really good. You just never know, so I’ll go into the weekend open-minded as I don’t want to set myself up for failure with having too big expectations, but I’ll go there and enjoy the races.
“I feel like I’ve been injured for a really long time and I’ve only done three races in the last twelve months because of that, so let’s do these next two rounds and try to be consistent and keep building and then I will look forward to a strong window before 2027.”