North West 200

I was so looking forward to the NW200 for many reasons, the racing, the atmosphere, adrenalin rush but most of all riding for Honda again!

Following a telephone conversation last winter Neil Tuxworth had kindly organised for me to ride a Honda-Racing Fireblade at the NW200. I was to ride one of Karl Harris’s BSB Fireblade’s in red and yellow Honda-Racing/Dunlop livery.

Unfortunately with everybody’s BSB commitments I didn’t get the chance to test the Honda before Tuesday night practice, fortunately for me though Karl races with WP suspension as I do on my Sendo superbike and after a conversation with the team we decided to run a little softer springs with me being quite a few kilo’s lighter than Karl.

Monday afternoon/evening was spent at UTV and Ballymoney doing some PR stuff before doing a sponsored cycle ride at Portrush school on Tuesday.

I couldn’t wait to ride the Honda on Tuesday night even though the forecast wasn’t so good; in fact the forecast was pretty wet all week?? Sure enough it had rained which was maybe a good thing, means you aren’t too aggressive whilst jumping on a race-bike you’ve never ridden before, I was fastest from the word go and was really enjoying myself! Had a little miss-fire and had to pit for a while, was only a small electrical fault but meantime the circuit had started to dry and everybody went quicker. Ended the session fourth and happy with the Honda, wanted to change the set-up a little in order to stop the bike wheelying so much in top gear, it certainly is fast!

Wednesday was a good relaxing day with not a lot of commitments, discussed a plan with the set-up ready for Thursday night practice and hoped the weather would be kind to us all?

Sure enough it was perfect conditions so we could all concentrate on getting good set-ups for Saturday’s races. I was only riding the Superbike in two races as many others opt to ride in five different races…. Too much I think. Better to be winning the Superbike races than doing ok in every race. Ended the session in second position behind Rutter but only just so was confident for Saturday, the Honda was much better than Tuesday and I didn’t have any complaints.

Spent Friday evening down in Belfast at Owens Honda dealership, wasn’t there for too long with the traffic being very busy up near the circuit and wanted plenty of beauty sleep ready for the big day!

When I opened the curtains on Saturday morning the sun was shining…. Mega!

Seemed like I’d only blinked and it was time for the first race sighting lap, circuit was dry, bike felt good. Only thing that was concerning me was the start, hadn’t done a practice start and didn’t want to fry the clutch.

Made a good start and slotted into fourth behind Rutter, McGuiness and Farquar. Rutter was trying to make a break straight away so I passed McGuiness but was struggling to get by Ryan; he was all over the road having some stability issues! I finally managed to get by but Rutter was a little dot in the distance.

Keeping things smooth as possible I pushed very hard for three laps and caught Michael breaking the lap record in the process. Rutter’s factory Fireblade had more top speed than mine, I could sit in his slipstream but wasn’t able to pass on the straight.

We changed places many times having a good ding-dong, I passed Michael into Church on the last lap but he re-passed me on the straight towards Juniper. I was confident of passing him entering the chicane as I was better in the braking area but a backmarker was in the way. From there on it’s almost impossible to pass finishing two tenths behind meant another second place but maybe my luck would change in the next race?

Had a few hours to kill before the second race, the last race and biggest of the day, the NW200 main event. Every race until then was hindered by rain showers making it very difficult to make tyre choices?

We formed on the grid and the sun was shining, McGuiness made a flyer, Rutter second and I was third. By the end of lap one I was leading and desperate to make a break for it, as I exited the start/finish chicane the heavens opened and hail-stones were bouncing off the road. I just slowed down and cruised down to York Hairpin letting somebody past before the red-flags came out.

It was only wet from the finish line to Mill Road Roundabout, I opted for inter front and slick rear but on the sighting lap the heavens opened again and it was wet everywhere.

The only choice was wets, Dunlop advised me the rear would only be good for three laps so I had to use an inter.

I was sideways everywhere and lost too much time so pulled out after the first lap…… gutted, still never won at the NW200!