Peter Hickman, Davey Todd fume after controversial NW200 decision: “It’s dead simple…”

An incident in Superbike Race 2 resulted in one of Michael Dunlop’s best Superbike rides at the North West 200, but also overshadowed his accomplishment.

The Ballymoney rider ran on at the Mather’s chicane on lap one along with Peter Hickman, but were Hickman stopped and put his foot down, Dunlop carried straight on.

Initially, Dunlop was given a 10-second penalty, and was classified third on corrected time immediately after the race.

But the penalty was rescinded, meaning Dunlop was declared the winner for the third time at this edition of the Causeway Coast road race, having passed Davey Todd on the final lap despite being almost 20 seconds down at the end of lap one having had the mistake at Mather’s and a second run-on at Metropole.

Hickman was vocal in his opinion of what the outcome should have been from the race stewards when speaking in his post-race interview, which took place before the final race result was declared in favour of Dunlop and against Hickman’s 8Ten Racing teammate and co-owner, Todd.

“It’s dead simple,” Hickman told BBC Sport NI in is post-race interview.

“If you run on at a chicane, you have to stop at the stop box, put your foot down, and go again.

“Michael [Dunlop] obviously got pulled in by me into Mather’s Cross, we both missed the chicane, Michel went straight on, I cut across, stopped in the stop box, and went – like you’re meant to. If you don’t do that, you get a 10-second penalty, that’s the rule.

“So, as far as I’m concerned, one of us gets a 10-second penalty, one of us doesn’t.

“The 8Ten bike ran really well, I was really happy with it. Slow in the first couple of laps like I normally am, need to get the tyres up to temperature, and then I’m all good.

“Davey [Todd] cleared off, riding really well, as is Michael, Michael’s riding so good, it’s great to see him back again.

“Probably for the first time in a long time Michael’s got no excuses, he’s got a full factory BMW built by SMR [Shaun Muir Racing] with Toprak [Razgatlioglu]. What more could you ask for? It’s the best bike on the grid.

“He’s riding it awesome, it’s great to see, [it’s] great to be in the battle with it. If it’s by the rule book, then unfortunately there’s a 10-second penalty in there, but who knows?”

Todd: “It’s his backyard”

Todd was frustrated by the final decision, but also by a technical issue that he felt had cost him the chance to win on the road, regardless of the decision on Dunlop’s penalty.

“Of course he did,” Todd told BBC Sport NI when informed that Dunlop had been declared the winner.

“It’s his backyard, isn’t it? I mean, fair play to him, he’s obviously riding well.

“But we should’ve won the race anyway: we were miles in front and we had a technical issue with the bike, it started running real slow; I don’t know what’s wrong with it but I didn’t know if I was going to finish.

“I’ve no words. There’s a rule, and we just change the rules to suit whoever it suits. I don’t want to say too much, but it’s the way it is.”

Dunlop: “I didn’t gain an advantage”

Dunlop, for his part, said that the reason he didn’t stop in the stop box on the first lap was about safety, and said he didn’t gain an advantage from running on.

“We’ve got a bit of a complaint from some of the riders here in the parc ferme about [running on at the Mather’s chicane],” Dunlop said in his post-race interview to BBC Sport NI.

“We were pushed into the chicane: Pete [Peter Hickman] jumped over the grass, which was dangerous, we went over the kerb. We got going, I ran on again at Metropole, came back.

“The rule is that if you go through the chicane, as in if you go through the stop box, you stop and put your foot down. For safety reasons I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t jump off the grass into the stop box, it was just too dangerous.

“But they’ve [Hickman and Todd] obviously got a problem with it.

“But, end of story – I didn’t gain an advantage, I caught everybody, I won the race. That’s enough for me.”

He added: “Pete got crossed up and got into it. There’s a bunch of riders, you know somebody’s going to go straight on, you can’t just start swerving all over the road.

“I made a decision; I mounted the kerb, he [Hickman] mounted the kerb but he decided to drop off which was quite dangerous, I thought.

“But I didn’t gain an advantage. People got past me, I made another mistake, and I don’t see the reason what the fuss is about.”