Dates for next year's Northwest 200 have been confirmed by organisers after lengthy discussions with British Superbike and World Endurance chiefs to ensure there are no date clashes for the extended festival.

The 2012 festival will kick off with a Tuesday practice session starting at 9.30am on May 15 for five hours and then an identical one on Thursday. The first two races, Superstock and Supertwins will commence on Thursday night with roads closing at 5.30pm.

Saturday will see two Superbike and two Supersport races, plus a second Superstock event. There will also be a new aggregate points system installed over the Superstock races. It is hoped names like John McGuinness and Keith Amor will be able race in 2012 unlike this year when they were called away on World Endurance duty with the Honda TT Legends team.

“We aim to close the 8.9 mile circuit roads on Tuesday and Thursday from 9.30am until 2.30pm providing substantial time for practice including valuable newcomer sessions. To expand our race programme and broaden the appeal to fans, we hope to introduce two exciting races on the Thursday evening – a Superstock event followed by a Supertwins Race – with roads set to close 5.30pm to 9pm," said technical director Mervyn Whyte.

"We believe the new revitalised programme will attract additional spectators and add a little more live action to our Race Week schedule. The addition of the Supertwins race is a first for the North West 200 and we will be following the same regulations as the Isle of Man TT who are also set to introduce a Supertwins class for the first time in 2012.”