Alastair Seeley made it a double for the day and 12 North West 200 wins in total when he took a superb win in Thursday evening’s 6-lap Superstock race. The Mar-Train Racing Kawasaki rider was pegged back by Michael Rutter and Michael Dunlop in the second half of the race and dropped back to third but a move on Rutter at Metropole and then again on Dunlop at Black Hill gave him the win by half a second.
“Michael (Dunlop) got a bit squirrely coming under the railway bridge and I got good drive all the way up Black Hill and went up the inside,” said Seeley “After that, I rode a defensive line and braked as hard as I could going into Juniper and knew I pretty much had it in the bag unless someone did a late lunge. Thursday’s a good day for me, I did the double last year and again this year and I’m confident we can improve the package a bit more.”
Seeley grabbed the lead on the opening lap and led by 0.3s from Martin Jessopp and Simon Andrews as they flashed through the start and finish with Rutter, Dunlop and Conor Cummins completing the top six. Second time around and Seeley’s lead was up to 1.4s as the BMW trio of Jessopp, Rutter and Dunlop gave chase but Rutter, trying to make up time after being forced wide at York Corner by Andrews, moved up to second going into University on lap three and set about reducing the gap. Another man on the move was Austrian ace Horst Saiger and a new lap record of 121.214mph put him fifth.
Going into the final third of race, Rutter was less than half a second behind Seeley and took the lead for the first time at University on the penultimate lap and when a backmarker held them up through the Juniper Chicane, Dunlop closed right in to ensure it would be a three-way fight to the flag.
Sure enough, Dunlop went straight to the front on the final run down to University, getting a double slipstream from the two riders ahead of him. However, Seeley, always so strong on the final third of the lap, did what he’s done numerous times before to come home for a great win in what was a great race.
Jessopp got the better of Saiger by a third of a second to take fourth with Andrews making it four BMWs in the top six. Conor Cummins was the best Honda in seventh with Guy Martin one place further back, the Suzuki rider lacking the speed to challenge further up the leaderboard. Newcomer Peter Hickman had a superb ride into ninth just ahead of William Dunlop on the second Tyco Suzuki.
Click here for results
