North West 200 top speed record holder Martin Jessopp will be back at the nine-mile triangle in May and hopes to go ever faster than his 208mph on a BMW S1000 HP4 with some MotoGP technology.

Tthe Yeovil man will arrive at this year’s North West 200 practice on the heavily-modified Superbike spec HP4 that has been specially designed for road racing.

“We have done an awful lot of development work on the BMWs since last year and we have built different bikes for the roads and BSB for this season,” said Jessopp’s father, Phil, who runs the Motorcycle Riders.com team.

“We have used MotoGP technology in the back end of the new HP4 to develop a new swing-arm and we have also designed new yokes and forks for the front end to help make the bike more stable. The engine will have more power as well as a new BMW factory electronics system."

Jessopp himself admits the team struggled last year in the MCE British Superbike series but has adopted a different strategy for this year as well as also preparing for his TT debut.

“You need a really fast and stable bike for road circuits like the North West. We know the engine is fast because we were the fastest through the speed trap at Macau last year so most of the development has focussed on the chassis and we will have a bike that is designed to perform better on the roads," said Jessopp.

"Years ago people used to talk about racing at the North West to get the bike set up for the TT but the North West is a huge event that stands on its own nowadays and I am really looking forward to getting back there.”