It was a professional job well done for Ian Lougher, as the Blackhorse Kawasaki team manager/rider figured prominently on the leader board in all three classes as first qualifying for Saturday's International North-West 200 drew to a close on Tuesday evening.

One of the most experienced competitors round the famous Portstewart-Coleraine-Portrush triangle circuit, Ian opened his account with 13th in the Superbike class.

Rain began to fall on parts of the circuit accompanied by a strong wind as Supersport practice got underway. Undeterred, Ian rounded off the session with 7th fastest in the standings, the highest placed kawasaki rider with a lap of 109.31mph.

With conditions at Ballysally Roundabout being reported as a bit slippery, practice for Superstocks got underway with Lougher particularly impressive on the Ninja ZX-10R. Running in the top three in the early stages with Guy Martin and William Dunlop, Ian eventually finished fifth fastest with a lap of 116.28mph to bring his evening's proceedings to a satisfactory conclusion.



Ian Lougher upped the pace as final qualifying took place in dry but cold conditions on Thursday morning ahead of Saturday's Relentless International North-West 200.

The opening Superstock session was delayed following an incident on the approach to Station Corner and when it resumed Ian managed a best lap of 116.73mph, an improvement of over a second on his time on Tuesday evening. He went through the speed trap at 188mph on his sixth lap and finished 10th quickest.

Next up was the Supersport session and here Ian circulated in a time of 4:46.34 secs to improve by over nine seconds and finish in 9th position. In the final session for Superbikes, Ian again improved on his Tuesday evening best, this time by over 10 seconds with a lap of 116.65mph.

The speed trap recorded his Ninja ZX-10R at 189mph on the seventh lap.