The 2014 North West 200 got underway in Northern Ireland today with the first of two practice sessions taking place in warm and sunny conditions. The 45-minute Superbike practice came to a close with Honda Racing’s John McGuinness and Conor Cummins placing 11th and 13th respectively on the timesheet.

Following their inaugural outing on the new 2014 Honda Racing CBR1000RR SP at Castle Combe last week, McGuinness and Cummins used today’s session to settle in on their respective machines on the 8.9-mile NW200 circuit. Both riders made progress in finding a good set-up ahead of Saturday’s Superbike races.

Michael Rutter secured provisional pole in the Superbike class, with the final grid positions being determined following the second practice session on Thursday.


Neil Tuxworth

All things considered, it was not a bad session today. We had no major issues with the new bikes and we know what we need to work on before the second session on Thursday. John’s wrist injury is holding up well and Conor is getting to grips with the Fireblade so all in all, we can’t complain.

John McGuinness

My confidence is still is little low after my injury so I was just easing myself in a bit today and it probably looks worse on paper than it is. The bike is grand. We’ve changed a few little things to suit the circuit and it’s definitely in the ballpark. Overall it’s encouraging and after a rest day tomorrow we’ll be back on Thursday to see if we can improve.

Conor Cummins

It was pretty steady today. We just had a bit of a run out really and tried a few things on the bike as it’s very different around here than at Castle Combe. We made some changes and went a bit faster so there’s definitely more to come. I’m really looking forward to going out again on Thursday.

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