Alastair Seeley set an unofficial lap record of 122.114mph on Thursday morning to claim pole position for the two North West 200 Superstock races. With the sun continuing to shine, the Briggs Equipment BMW rider took over at the front with ten minutes of the 50-minute session remaining to give him a great chance of taking a record-breaking 16th win later today.
As per Tuesday’s session, it was Michael Rutter who led for much of the way on the Bathams SMT Racing BMW with a lap of 120.951mph before Seeley took over. Rutter responded in the closing minutes with 121.296mph to stay in second although it’s his lap from Tuesday of 121.847mph that confirmed his place in the middle of the front row.
Peter Hickman spoiled the BMW party with a late lap of 121.173mph to elevate himself to third and the front row on the GB Moto Racing Kawasaki and that bumped Ian Hutchinson back to fourth on his Tyco BMW, the last of the riders to break the 121mph barrier but went through the speed-trap at 202.2mph.
Michael Dunlop will line up in the middle of the second row on yet another BMW after setting a near identical lap time today to what he did on Tuesday and fellow countryman Lee Johnston will be alongside him on the ECC/Burdens-backed machine, the latter admitting he felt a lot better on the machine today as he continues to recover from injuries sustained at Scarborough in April.
Dean Harrison (Silicone Engineering Kawasaki) and Martin Jessopp (Riders Motorcycles BMW) were the only other two riders to lap at more than 120mph over the course of the two sessions as James Hillier (Quattro Plant Muc-Off Kawasaki) and William Dunlop (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) completed the top ten.
Some big names find themselves sitting just outside the top ten including Gary Johnson, Jeremy McWilliams, Horst Saiger, Bruce Anstey and Ryan Farquhar.
