By Kyle White Belfast Newsletter
Alastair Seeley secured his 27th victory and fourth North West 200 treble as he won Saturday’s Superstock race on the north coast.
Seeley also won the Superstock race on Thursday in the rain and the Carrickfergus man repeated the feat on his IFS Yamaha R1 in warm and dry conditions around the 8.9-mile ‘Triangle’ course.
The 42-year-old was 11.7s ahead of Lee Johnston on the Ashcourt Racing BMW, who held off DAO Kawasaki’s Dean Harrison by just under one second.
In a race of attrition, Davey Todd was a retirement on his Milenco by Padgett’s Honda after breaking the lap record when he was reeling in Seeley, with Michael Dunlop – who took the lead at one stage on his Honda – also failing to finish along with pole man Glenn Irwin, Ian Hutchinson and Conor Cummins.
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Alastair Seeley on his way to victory in Saturday’s Superstock race at the North West 200 on the IFS Yamaha.
Seeley took the lead from the off and was passed by Irwin into York corner, but the Honda rider ran wide, allowing Todd into second.
There was drama when they reached University, with Irwin running on and Todd taking to the grass.
Seeley was left in the lead with Dunlop giving chase as they pulled ahead of Skerries man Michael Sweeney (MJR BMW) in third, who was ahead of Harrison.
On lap two, Dunlop passed Seeley on the run to Mather’s chicane to hit the front, but the Yamaha rider came back to re-take the lead into Juniper chicane.
Todd was up to third after his misdemeanour on the first lap with Johnston in fourth.
Dunlop’s chance of a win went begging when he out-braked himself into University after hitting 201mph on the Honda.
Todd was now incredibly back up to second place as he set off in pursuit of Seeley, while Dunlop was now coming under pressure from Johnston.
Seeley’s lead at the end of lap three was 3.6s over Todd, who was on a charge and lapping four seconds a lap faster than the leader after setting a new lao
However, Todd lost pace dramatically on lap four and began to fall back, with Johnston now into second place.
Dunlop was also experiencing problems on his Honda and retired at the end of the lap, when Seeley’s lead was 4.4s over Johnston, with Todd 3.8s further behind and Harrison chasing in fourth.
Todd was now lapping nine seconds slower than he managed earlier when he set a new lap record, with the English rider looking as though he had tyre problems.
As the race unfolded, Seeley managed his lead of four seconds over Johnston and eventually went on to win his 27th NW200 race by 11.7s from Johnston, who held off Harrison by 0.9s.
Todd pulled out, with Sweeney taking an excellent fourth place ahead of John McGuinness (Honda Racing Fireblade), with Sam West rounding out the top six (BMW).
