Davey Todd wins at North West 200: "Set up in eight weeks, nearly weren't here"

Davey Todd says a North West 200 Superbike win had been “eluding me for quite a while” after picking up his first victory in the class at the 2025 edition of the Northern Irish road race.

Todd led from the start in Superbike Race 1 on Thursday evening, his first road race on the 8Ten Racing BMW, and ultimately held on ahead of Honda’s Dean Harrison to take what he described as a “real special” victory.

“It’s the one that’s been eluding me for quite a while,” Todd said of his Superbike Race 1 victory, speaking to BBC Sport NI afterwards.

“It’s real special this one with me and Pete [Peter Hickman] both there for the 8Ten Racing team. It’s a team that’s been set-up in the last eight weeks, and I’ve got to give such a massive shoutout to all the team and all our sponsors for making this happen because we nearly weren’t here.

“The boys have really pulled it out the bag, the whole team have really pulled it out the bag, getting this together, and hopefully this is on the way to repaying them a little bit: 1-3, nearly a 1-2 – it’s a great start to our road racing campaign.”

Davey Todd 'struggling' in one obvious area

Todd made the holeshot in all three races on Thursday, but was surprised to do so in the Superbike race, as he explained.

“With the new Superbike, I’ve been really struggling to get it off the line, [like] at BSB at the weekend,” he said.

“I’ve always been good off the starts, but I’ve really struggled with this. Fortunately, when it counted, I got a good start there.

“I wanted to lead from the front; with it being such a short race, only four laps, I wanted to stay in front for as long as I could; tried to set a steady pace for the first few laps and on the last lap really get the head down to make sure I had a little bit left in there.”

Finally, Todd dedicated his win to Owen Jenner and Shane Richardson, who both died at the Oulton Park BSB on Monday.

“I’d love to dedicate this one to Owen [Jenner] and Shane [Richardson], two good mates that we lost there at BSB at the weekend, so this one’s for them,” he said.

“Thinking about them, I hope they’re riding in the sky.”