For the second time in three years, Saturday's race action at the Vauxhall North West 200 fell victim to the weather as torrential rain led to just two laps of racing being completed.

The rain that fell overnight failed to stop and a course inspection just before 3pm by Event Director Mervyn Whyte and riders John McGuinness, Michael Rutter and Stuart Easton gave everyone the decision they were expecting, abandonment of the day's schedule.

Six times winner McGuinness was almost speechless after seeing gorgeous sunshine on Friday replaced by monsoon-like conditions on Saturday. "There's four-five inches of water through the Juniper Chicane section and it's like a swimming pool, there's no other way to describe it. The guys are working so hard with machines to pump the water away but as fast as they're clearing it, it's come back. The drains just can't cope. University to Mathers was about rideable but the coast road is completely underwater. We were basking in the sunshine yesterday but now it feels like we've been knocked back to winter."

Whyte added, "We took a final course inspection but there's a huge amount of standing water, especially along the coast road and it's just not possible to go racing. We've been working so hard but the elements have beaten us. If the weather had broken we might have got some racing in but the forecast is for heavy rain right through until beyond 7pm. I'm gutted for the thousands of fans who've turned up but in the interest of safety we've had no choice but to make this decision."

Current legislation, believed to date back to the 1950s, restricts race organisers - of any event - to only have three days available to run practice and racing and the lack of flexibility, is now creating serious problems for the event.

"The big problem we have is that the road closing order is only for three days and it doesn't give us any flexibility," said Whyte. "Friday's weather was perfect so if we could have altered the schedule, it would have been ideal but, as it stands at the moment, we can't. We've started to talk to the Government to see if something can be done to get more hours and more flexibility because, as things stand at the moment, we have no opportunities to make any changes. We need to have more leeway."