The Quattro Plant Muc-Off Kawasaki team are in Northern Ireland this forthcoming week for the first of the International road races, the North West 200, and James Hillier is all set to once again challenge for the race wins.

Situated on the Causeway Coast and first held in 1929, the 8.9-mile circuit links the towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush and sees speeds comfortably in excess of 200mph along the countries B-roads, which gives way to some frantic, and exhilarating slipstreaming action. The run along the coast road also sees some terrific last lap action where the race is often won and lost.

Hampshire’s Hillier enjoyed an excellent season in 2015, culminating in three podiums at the Isle of Man TT where he also became the third fastest rider in the history of the event. Now entering his seventh year with the team, the 31-year old has been competing at the North West 200 since 2010 and has a busy week ahead with no less than eight races in store on the Quattro Plant Muc-Off machines.

Recent years has seen the race programme severely affected by the weather but last year James took a best finish of seventh in the Superstock race backing this up with a brace of eighths in the two Supersport encounters. He has two podiums to his name around the ‘Triangle’ circuit having finished a close third in the 2012 Superstock race before going one better in the following year’s Supertwin race.

With a good programme of testing under his belt, in both Spain and the UK, 2016 will again see James line up in all of the classes with the Kawasaki ZX-10R at his disposal for the Superbike and Superstock races, the Kawasaki ZX-6R for the Supersport, and the Kawasaki ER6 for the Supertwin races.

James Hillier: 

“I’m feeling good and ready to get stuck in to be honest! I’ve probably done more testing than I’ve ever done before as we had a bit of work to do on the new ZX-10R but I’m ready as I’ll ever be. I want to give a better account of myself at this year’s NW200 and get back to the podium form I showed in 2012 and 2013 and with the weather forecast looking good, we’ve definitely got the potential to run at the sharp end.”

Pete Extance, Team Owner: 

“The whole team’s really looking forward to getting back onto the roads and with the new ZX-10R, we can’t wait to see it stretch its legs along the high speed straights of the North West. It’s James’ first race of 2016 but he’s fit and raring to go and with the forecast looking good, we’re confident of getting some good results and having the ideal preparation prior to the TT.”


Practice for the event takes place from 9.30am-3.00pm on Tuesday 10th May and again on Thursday 12th May whilst that evening sees three races take place. 

The feature race day is Saturday 14th May with six races on the schedule.

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