North West 200 rookie Simon Andrews justified his place alongside John McGuinness in the Honda Legends team on Saturday at the North West 200, coming from the second wave in feature race to finish in fourth place.

The Evesham man, who had little dry practice time on a circuit on which he had never raced, used the first big-bike outing to work on setup and to get more of a feel for braking markers and then, after being refused a high grid order because of missing front runners, got his head down for some fast and smooth laps.

"After the first race, we made some setup changes to the front and rear which worked so well. The bike was wheelying a lot less and I was just able to keep my riding smooth and the speed came to me," said Andrews, speaking to bikesportnews.com this morning.

"I knew that if I would keep a pace in the 4'29s bracket, I could get a result and we hammered those lap times. It was a bit surreal going past people like Adrian Archibald and Bruce Anstey on the road coming from so far back but it was relaxed I was able to be consistent.

"It was a good setup for the Isle of Man and I will get out there on Wednesday to get on with my preparations. Having John as a team-mate will help me loads so there will be plenty of listening going on."