Alastair Seeley took his second pole position of the day at the International North West 200 when his lap of 116.101 gave him the top spot in the Supersport qualifying session, which was interrupted when initial pole man William Dunlop highsided coming out of York Corner.
Dunlop’s lap of 115.506mph gave him an early advantage before he came to grief on the CD Racing Yamaha and when the session re-started Seeley took control on the Tyco Suzuki. He put in his 116mph lap early on and he ended the session just 0.6s ahead of Kiwi Bruce Anstey whose lap of 116.071mph on the Valvoline Racing by Padgetts Honda saw him relegate Dunlop to third.
Impressive newcomer Glenn Irwin was flying on the Gearlink Kawasaki and took a superb fourth after lapping at 115.252mph and he’ll be joined on the second row for the two races by John McGuinness (Jackson Racing Honda) and Gary Johnson on the first of the Mar-Train Racing Yamaha’s.
A late lap from Michael Dunlop saw him move up the order to seventh just ahead of Michael Rutter who lost most of the session after his Kawasaki ground to a halt along the coast road. Dean Harrison and Keith Amor rounded out the top ten just ahead of James Hillier, Conor Cummins and Dan Kneen with just over eight seconds covering the top 13 riders.
Leading British Supersport rider Ben Wilson also had a promising debut with a lap of 111.879mph placing him 16th.
