Tyco Suzuki's Alastair Seeley took his 2012 North West 200 tally to two after mugging William Dunlop on the last lap of the second Supersport race, going underneath the race one winner into Church Corner in a move not appreciated by the Ballymoney man.
The pair had swapped places for the whole six laps with Dunlop's Wilson Craig Honda proving superior on the two big straights and Seeley catching up on the coast rode on every lap. Bruce Anstey pipped former TAS team-mate Cameron Donald for third.
Seeley said: "It's good to finally get my first win of the day but it wasn't easy as William's bike was so fast and in a straight line he was pulling away from me, even when I was in his slipstream. I had to work really hard through the tight stuff but I knew if I was still in touch at Metropole on the final lap, i'd be able to have a go along the coast road. As it was, we caught a backmarker going into Church and I just went for it."
The early stages of the race saw the Padgetts Honda duo of Bruce Anstey and John McGuinness lead the way but at the end of the first lap it was Cameron Donald who led with a 0.5s advantage over Seeley, closely followed by Anstey, Dunlop (who was still suffering the effects of his earlier Superbike spill), McGuinness and Michael Dunlop. Lap two saw William make his charge and on the high speed run to University, he grabbed lead, Seeley quickly moving into second.
By half race distance, the race had split into three groups of two with Dunlop and Seeley holding a three second lead over Donald and Anstey with McGuinness and Michael Dunlop a further second back. The latter faded in the final laps to leave the other three fighting it out for the final podium spot but at the head of the field, it looked like Dunlop had done enough as he edged clear on the final lap. However, Seeley was superb on the brakes into all of the chicanes and when he saw an opportunity at Church, he needed no second invitation.
The move pushed William wide and he ended up over a second behind at the chequered flag with Anstey pulling off a final corner maneouvre on Donald to claim the final rostrum position. McGuinness was two seconds adrift with Michael Dunlop, Gary Johnson and Dan Kneen all having lonely rides into sixth, seventh and eighth. Michael Sweeney and newcomer Dan Cooper rounded out the top ten.
