Mar-Train racing made a positive start to the 2015 International North West 200 today by provisionally qualifying all four of their machines on the front two rows of the grid.

In a wet and windy start to the day both Gary Johnson and Dean Harrison put their YZF-R6 Yamahas on the second row for the supersport race qualifying in 4th and 6th places respectively. Johnson, who stood on the supersport podium in 2014, posted a lap of 102.605mph whilst Harrison was just marginally slower with a lap of 101.780mph.

Conditions worsened for the superbike session with rain falling heavily throughout but that didn’t stop twenty six year old Harrison posting a lap of 107.230mph to finish fourth on his Metzeler shod YZF-R1M.

The strong blustery winds and fading rain meant the track dried rapidly as the final session of the day for the superstock machines left the grid. Harrison contested the lead throughout the twenty five minute session eventually slotting into third place with a time of 115.883mph and a provisional front row start for Thursday’s race.



Dean Harrison:

“Today has gone really well to be fair, the conditions were a bit slippy but the bikes were spot on and the Metzeler tyres worked really well so I can’t complain. Happy to be on the front two rows on all three bikes as you just need to get away with the leaders around here. A few small changes and we should be where we need to be for Thursday.”

Gary Johnson:

“I didn’t really push on too hard in the 600 session as it was the first of the day and the conditions were far from ideal. To be in the mix therefore is encouraging and bodes well for the rest of the week. We have a few small changes to make so hopefully we get a dry day on Thursday to allow us to push on but so far pretty happy.”

Tim Martin:

“I have to say that apart from the weather everything went really well today. Both guys are in a great frame of mind and the bikes didn’t miss a beat. We’ve qualified all four bikes near the front of the grid which was the main aim of today so we’ll look at the data and see if we can make any improvements for the guys for Thursday.”