North West 200 2024: First Qualifying Recap

The North West 200 roared into action today as the world’s best road racers tackled the famous triangle circuit in Northern Ireland. Here is a recap of Wednesday’s first Qualifying sessions:

Superbike:

For many, the main attraction this week is Glenn Irwin. He did the treble in Round 2 at Oulton Park in the British Superbike Championship. His fantastic record of Superbike wins at the North West 200 is also making him the favourite in the class for this week and he didn’t disappoint.

He set the unofficial lap record in the opening Superbike Qualifying session onboard the Hager PBM Ducati, with a 4:18.553, two tenths faster than Peter Hickman’s official lap record from 2022. It remains unofficial as laps registered in practice don’t count in the record books, they only count in race sessions.

But, Irwin’s opposition in the Superbike class aren’t going to make life easy for him. Davey Todd was second onboard the Milwaukee BMW by TAS Racing machine, 1.4 seconds back. Michael Dunlop got to grips with the 2024 Honda Fireblade and managed to finish third, ahead of Peter Hickman in fourth & Honda Racing’s Dean Harrison in fifth, who is riding his Superstock bike in this class after Honda Racing UK decided to withdraw his Superbike & Supersport bike due to the “nature of the calendar this year and significant delays in sourcing parts and materials”.

Supersport:

Englishman Richard Cooper, made his intentions clear straight away in the Supersport class by topping the session, with a  time 4:34.202 on the BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha. The session was a duel between him and Davey Todd onboard the Powertoolmate Ducati Panigale V2.

The two riders could only be separated by 0.8 at the end of the session, leaving a mouth watering prospect for the Supersport races on Thursday and Saturday. Michael Dunlop has made the switch from Yamaha to Triumph machinery in 2024 and ended up third fastest, albeit 5.4 seconds down on Cooper’s fastest time. 

Cooper’s teammate Mike Browne impressed in fourth place with Peter Hickman rounding out the Top 5 onboard his Trooper Triumph by PHR.

Superstock:

After winning the opening round of the Pirelli National Superstock class at Oulton Park on Monday. Davey Todd once again showed why the switch to BMW machinery could be the key to big bike success on the roads in 2024. He topped the session with an impressive time of 4:20.942, with Honda Racing’s Dean Harrison 0.6 behind. Again, Michael Dunlop went quietly about his business in third place onboard his own MD Racing Honda.

Peter Hickman was 4th with a time of 4:24.951, running his own PHR Performance BMW in both the Superstock & Superbike classes after his team FHO Racing decided to miss the North West 200 in 2024 to focus on the preparations for the Isle of Man TT races.

It’s been 30 years since John McGuinness made his debut at the North West 200 and the enthusiasm for the sport is still just as big as it was in 1994. McGuinness finished fifth overall in the first qualifying session onboard the Honda Racing UK machine, just 1 second behind Hickman in fourth.

Supertwin:

At the age of 60, Jeremy McWilliams is just rapid, there is no other way of putting it. He was fastest in a curtailed Supertwin session that was red flagged due incident at Mill Road roundabout.

McWilliams, riding the Bayview Hotel Paton set his best time of 5:02.185, ahead of Northern Ireland’s Adam McLean, who was 0.5 behind on his JMcC Roofing Racing Kawasaki. Michael Sweeney was third fastest on his Aprilia 660, making a welcome return to the North West 200 after suffering a number of injuries in a crash at last year’s event.

Christian Elkin posted the fourth fastest time on his RB Eng/Woolich Racing Kawasaki, with Peter Hickman ending the day in fifth overall onboard the Swan Racing Yamaha R7.

As the session was cut short due to the red flag, a lot of riders didn’t set laps to qualify. Including four time race winner of the class, Richard Cooper. Riding once again for Ryan Farquhar onboard the Jack Reid Cars Kawasaki. With the weather looking good for tomorrow, Cooper should comfortably qualify for the Supertwin races on Saturday.

Final Qualifying sessions will take place on Thursday morning, before three evening races which include the Superbike, Supersport & Superstock classes. All the timings/schedule information are available here.