Vauxhall North West 200 bosses will use a new grid system at this year’s festival in order to even up differences between wet and dry qualifying sessions.

“We currently allocate grid positions based upon practice timings over Tuesday and Thursday’s practice sessions but if one session is wet and the other dry and a rider hits trouble in the dry he will lose out,” said event director Mervyn Whyte at today’s event launch.

“If the weather changes this year from one session to the other we will alternate the grid positions along the lines of the BSB system using times from both practices. It will be a fairer system for everyone.”