Alastair Seeley toasted a perfect ten on Thursday night as he defied the odds to seize an unlikely double in the Supersport and Superstock races at the Vauxhall International North West 200.

It was the perfect tonic to a trying week for the British Supersport star, who was forced to start from the fourth row of the second wave of riders on his 600cc Gearlink Kawasaki after he failed to post a fast lap on Tuesday due to a holed radiator.

Poor weather during final qualifying robbed the 33-year-old of the chance to improve his grid slot and he was allocated his lowly starting position following a stewards meeting.

It made little difference in the end, as Seeley powered through to plunder victory on the final lap of the Supersport race, edging long-time race leader Michael Dunlop to win by 1.3 seconds on corrected time.

He rounded off the evening in ominous style with a polished performance on his MSS Colchester Kawasaki ZX-10R to take the Superstock plaudits from Kiwi Bruce Anstey.

Seeley has increased his North West 200 strike rate to ten wins to become the fifth most successful rider in the history of the event - one behind race legend Phillip McCallen.


Speaking after his breathtaking Supersport feat, the Carrick man said:

“I have to say the Gearlink Kawasaki is a fast bike and I couldn’t believe it when I caught riders like William [Dunlop] and Cameron [Donald] because those guys should have been miles ahead of me.

“But I just rode my own race, hit every apex and didn’t make any mistakes and I just wanted to bring the bike home because this week hasn’t been the best up to now.

“I tried to keep on every damp spot on the circuit to try and preserve my tyres and it worked well.”

Gary Johnson finished third in the Superstock race ahead of Guy Martin with Dublin’s Derek Sheils next on the CD Racing Kawasaki and Conor Cummins sixth on the Milwaukee Yamaha.

Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes was a solid seventh on his road racing debut.





Kyle White
.