By As in the previous Superstock encounter, Synetiq BMW’s Alastair Seeley made a swift start to this afternoon’s stock 1000 race stint at the FonaCAB & Nicholl Oils North West 200.
At lap one’s finalisation, the ‘Wee Wizard’ was 1.7 seconds to the good on lead chaser, 21 times TT winner Michael Dunlop.
The following lap would see Dunlop, reigning National Superstock 1000 Champion Davey Todd start to heap the pressure on NW200 wins record holder Seeley.
Half a second covered the top three with fourth placed Dean Harrison, just under eight seconds behind fellow Englishman Todd.
Onto lap three and Todd who got past Dunlop at York Corner was giving it everything in pursuit of a maiden 1000cc NW200 victory.
Towards the end of lap three, Todd had been usurped by Dunlop for second.
1.45 seconds covered the leading group as the fifth, final lap loomed.
If P1 holder Seeley was feeling the pressure, he wasn’t showing it.
Drama then struck with Davey Todd’s Honda literally going bang, enduring a major technical malfunction forcing the Brotton racer out of the race.
Before red flags popped up, Seeley held his nerve, unlocked all of his NW200 winning experience to notch up Triangle course victory number twenty-nine, podium finish number forty-two.
Race runner-up Dunlop finished only 0.715 behind Seeley whilst P3 following Todd’s misfortune went to triple TT winner, DAO Racing Kawasaki’s Harrison.
The evenly matched Michael Rutter, Lami OMG Racing’s James Hillier, John McGuinness MBE wrapped up the top six.
Immingham’s Craig Neve took seventh, Macau GP winner Erno Kostamo took eighth, Sam West was ninth with triple Manx GP winner Michael Evans a very respectable tenth.
CP Hire Superstock Race Result:
1st – Alastair Seeley
2nd – Michael Dunlop
3rd – Dean Harrison
4th – Michael Rutter
5th – James Hillier
6th – John McGuinness MBE
7th – Craig Neve
8th – Erno Kostamo
9th – Sam West
10th – Michael Evans
11th – Paul Jordan
12th – Matthieu Lagrive
13th – Eddy Ferre
14th – Lukas Maurer
15th – Emmett O’Grady
16th – Amalric Blanc
17th – Ryan Gibson
18th – Raul Torras Martinez
19th – Stefano Bonetti
20th – Kamil Holan
21st – Jonathan Perry
22nd – Andrea Majola
23rd – Phil Stewart
24th – Chris Sarbora
25th – Dave Hewson
26th – James Chawke
27th – Andy McAllister
28th – Olivier Lupberger
29th – Patricia Fernandez West
30th – Jean Pierre Polet
31st – Liam Chawke
32nd – Stephen Degnan
33rd – Brad Clarke
Photo credit: Tommy Vennard
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
