Dean Harrison – (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha ) in action during first practice session for this years Vauxhall International NW200 in Portrush.
Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press

Mar-Train racing endured a testing time at this year’s International North West 200 but persevered to come away with two top six finishes.

After qualifying all four of their machines in the top ten Bradford rider Dean Harrison posted the team’s first result of the week finishing fifth in Thursday night’s opening Supersport encounter. Team mate Gary Johnson failed to finish but came back to score an eleventh place in Saturday’s second race as he continued his preparations for the Isle of Man TT.

Saturday saw the riders and officials battle heavy showers and strong winds throughout as well as a number of red flag incidents, the first of which involved Harrison. After a mediocre start the twenty six year old made his way through toward the front of the pack only to slip off his YZF-R1M Yamaha just after York corner on lap two. Thankfully he sustained only minor injuries and was able to walk back to the paddock.

The popular Yamaha UK rider showed great character to return to the grid and post sixth place in the second supersport race but encountered a small technical issue in the following superbike race and had to pull in. With the weather conditions still tricky and Harrison suffering some ill effects from his crash the team made the decision to sit out the final superbike race.

Team principal – Tim Martin:

“We’ve had a challenging day today kicking off with Dean crashing out of the superstock race this morning. The high speed nature of the track also identified some issues for us with the bikes which we had to iron out but Dean did well to bounce back with a sixth in the supersport race. We’ve collected some good data and move to the TT confident that we showed good pace here, Dean thankfully wasn’t badly hurt earlier so he will be fighting fit for first practice in a fortnight’s time.”

Rider – Dean Harrison:

I’ve never had much luck at the North West 200 and I made sure that continued by jumping off the superstock bike this morning. Really frustrated with myself for that as it ruined any chance of us getting a good result. We learnt a lot about the new bikes this week though so we can move onto the TT in a good frame of mind.”

Rider – Gary Johnson:

“I have one eye on the TT obviously but it still would have been nice to get a better result this week. The little R6 Yamaha is a great bike, we maybe just struggled with a lack of track time leading up to the event. I’ve got more comfortable with each outing though and am looking forward to riding it again in a few weeks.”