'I wanted something that can win races' - Irwin on BSB deal
Northern Ireland rider Andrew Irwin will run his own team and campaign a Ducati with the help of title sponsors in the 2026 British Superbike Championship.
Andrew Irwin has spent five years of his BSB career with the Honda Racing team [Getty Images] Andrew Irwin has explained that he "wanted to be on something with the potential to win races" as he revealed that he will run his own team and campaign a Ducati V4 in this year's British Superbike Championship. The 30-year-old parted company with the Honda Racing team after three years with the Louth-based outfit at the end of last season and now with the support of title sponsors will compete under the banner of MET fonaCAB Racing. "I'd been with Honda for the past few years and I was like, 'What do I do next?
'. I felt I really needed something new," Irwin told BBC Sport NI. "I had options to join what I might respectfully term a 'B' team, but I wanted to be competitive and have something that could win races and I thought the best way of going about it was for myself and MET and Fonacab to run a Ducati.
"I believe that gives me the best opportunity to do that, working with the best people, and I can't wait to go racing. " Irwin says the period after he was released by Honda was "an anxious period" but he "always felt like he had a lot of unfulfilled potential". Irwin began his BSB career on board a Ducati in 2018 and then switched to Japanese manufacturer Honda for 2019 and 2020.
In 2019, the Carrickfergus rider secured his first BSB win and finished eighth overall in the series. The following year he secured three further race wins and sixth overall in the standings. His 2023 campaign was blighted by an arm injury sustained in testing but in 2024 he clinched several podium finishes.