Alastair Seeley claimed pole position for the Superstock races at the International North West 200 on Thursday morning with the Tyco BMW rider the only person to break the 120mph barrier. Seeley had an advantage of three and a half seconds at one point but a final flying lap from Michael Dunlop on the MD Racing Yamaha brought the gap down to 0.7s.
Seeley set the pace to begin with and his first flying lap was 117.865 which he improved to 118.003 second time around. The strong winds were keeping speeds down slightly but Michael Dunlop went to the top of the leaderboard with 118.628 as brother William slotted into third. Keith Amor was another man on the move, up to sixth despite a bird shattering his screen.
Seeley’s fourth flying lap saw him move into the 119mph bracket as Martin Jessopp moved up to second on the Riders Motorcycles BMW whilst Dean Harrison and Guy Martin lapped in excess of 117mph. Austrian ace and lap record holder Horst Saiger was also on the move, slotting into fourth with a lap of 117.494.
With less than five minutes of the session remaining, William Dunlop stopped at Ballysally Roundabout but team-mate Seeley - who was quickest through the speed trap at 191mph - had no such problems and a lap of 120.196mph sent him 3.5s clear of Michael Dunlop until the latter crossed the line with seconds to spare at 119.861.
Lee Johnston was another late improver and slotted into third at 118.268 with fourth placed Jessopp the last rider to break the 118mph barrier at 118.194. Saiger and Harrison placed fifth and sixth ahead of William Dunlop, Martin - who quipped his granny could have ridden the bike flat out - Michael Rutter and Ian Hutchinson, who moved into the top ten late on.
The competitiveness of the class could be seen with those riders who didn’t make the top ten with Amor, Gary Johnson, McGuinness, James Hillier, Ryan Farquhar, Dan Kneen and Conor Cummins all missing out.
