By The pristine conditions which decorated qualifying sessions, continued for Thursday evening’s NW200 race opener, the Milwaukee Superbike contest.
Monster Energy 8TEN Racing BMW’s Peter Hickman lined up on pole alongside team-mate, co team-owner Davey Todd with Honda’s Dean Harrison rounding out the first row.
19 minutes behind schedule, race action commenced. 2024 Senior TT winner Todd made the brightest start and led into York Corner.
Todd remained first on the run to Mill Road Roundabout with team-mate Hickman leading the chase.
As lap one finalised, Todd maintained P1 but was now being hunted down by new second place occupier Harrison, 0.854 adrift.
Michael Dunlop held fourth behind Hickman with Ian Hutchinson fifth, Jamie Coward completing the leader board top six.
Throughout lap two, Todd’s race lead was being chipped into by Harrison, ultra-keen to finally attain NW200 race winning club membership.
As lap three dawned, the gap between Todd and Harrison was only 0.314 of a second.
Hickman in third, was slowly dropping back, dropping plus two seconds behind. Dunlop kept fourth ahead of now fifth place attainer Coward.
Harrison’s Honda Superbike was making outlandish shapes on lap three, as he built for an attack on Todd’s P1 ownership.
Pole-sitter Hickman, the ever-determined Dunlop were not giving up and by the end of lap three, the lead group was back to four riders.
The fourth, final lap saw truly world-class competition as Todd, Harrison, Hickman, Dunlop duked it out for the podium spots.
Though Church Corner, Metropole, Harrison gained, gained could he snatch race glory?
A late entry into the BetMcLean Chicane, proved enough for Todd to solidify P1 to the race’s end and take his first NW200 Superbike victory.
Celebrating with a trademark ‘stoppie’, Todd raised his hand as he took the chequered flag.
0.215 covered Todd, Harrison at the line, Hickman held off Dunlop for third whilst Hutchinson bested Coward in the race for fifth.
Erno Kostamo placed seventh, only 0.324 behind Coward with John McGuinness MBE, Paul Jordan, Michael Sweeney wrapping up the top ten finishers.
Finishers eleventh to fifteenth were Nathan Harrison, Michael Rutter, Conor Cummins, Michael Evans and Marcus ‘Spartacus’ Simpson.
Milwaukee Superbike Race Result:
1st – Davey Todd
2nd – Dean Harrison
3rd – Peter Hickman
4th – Michael Dunlop
5th – Ian Hutchinson
6th – Jamie Coward
7th – Erno Kostamo
8th – John McGuinness MBE
9th – Paul Jordan
10th – Michael Sweeney
11th – Nathan Harrison
12th – Michael Rutter
13th – Conor Cummins
14th – Michael Evans
15th – Marcus Simpson
16th – Sam West
17th – Maurizio Bottalico
18th – James Chawke
19th – Josh Brookes
20th – Phil Crowe
21st – Luca Gottardi
22nd – Amalric Blanc
23rd – Laurent Hoffmann
24th – Jonathan Goetschy
25th – Aaron Spence
26th – Marty Lennon
27th – Ryan Whitehall
28th – Eddy Ferre
29th – Barry Furber
30th – Kris Duncan
31st – Rhys Hardisty
32nd – Barry Burrell
33rd – Sean McTaggart
34th – Stephane Bednarek
35th – Graham McAleese
36th – David Brook
37th – Olivier Lupberger
38th – Don Gilbert
39th – Darryl Anderson
40th – Mark Goodings
41st – Paul Cassidy
42nd – Liam Chawke
43rd – Dan Forbes
44th – Emil Krchnavy
45th – Dermot Cleary
46th – Wayne Bourgeais
47th – Craig Kennelly
48th – Brad Clarke
Photo credit: Tommy Vennard
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
