Dean Harrison on NW200 Supersport battle: “If I squeezed harder all of us would’ve crashed”

Supersport Race 2 at the North West 200 was arguably the pick of the races this week at the 2025 edition of the Causeway Coast road race, with Dean Harrison saying he risked skittling himself, Richard Cooper, and Michael Dunlop had he squeezed the front brake any harder entering the Juniper chicane on the last lap.

Harrison, who has never won a race at the North West 200, battled with Cooper and Dunlop throughout the final couple of laps of what was a restarted Supersport Race 2.

The fight boiled down to the Juniper chicane on the last lap, with Harrison on the inside of Cooper, while Dunlop attacked on the outside.

Harrison and Cooper made contact and ran over the chicane, Cooper going on to take the win ahead of Harrison, with Dunlop third.

“I knew from the start of the race it was going to be difficult, to be honest,” Harrison told BBC Sport NI in his post-race podium interview.

“As soon as anyone passed me I was straight back past. I was constantly in the slipstream, they’ve got not a massive speed advantage but there’s a bit there; middle of the corner I felt like I had them, to be fair, I wasn’t stressed there.

“Then Michael [Dunlop] tried to have a do at me at Metropole on the last lap, and I chopped back on the inside and we had a bit of a coming together there.

“Then me and Richard [Cooper] had a bit of fairing bashing in the last chicane, so it was good for everyone to see.”

Expanding on the final chicane battle with Cooper and Dunlop, Harrison said: “There was Michael on the right side, Cooper [next to me] and I was trying to go up the inside of both of them.

“The front tyre was protesting and rolling, if I’d have squeezed any harder I’d have folded the front and all three of us would’ve gone down so I didn’t want that.

“I’m glad we all got across the line. Unfortunately, not quite a win, but second will do for now.”

He added: “Battling like that around here, there’s nothing like it.”

Cooper: “Lap one I was like ‘I’m having this’”

For Cooper, the victory was redemption for what he felt was a win that eluded him in Thursday’s Race 1 when he was beaten by Dunlop.

“Lap one I was like ‘I’m having this’,” said Cooper, speaking to BBC Sport NI after Supersport Race 2.

“Michael [Dunlop] beat me fair and square in Race 1, he had that one. This one there was no way.

“Once I saw him coming up the inside there I just let the brakes off; whoever got through that chicane in one piece, in my eyes, the win was for the taking.”

On the final chicane battle, and running over the grass on the inside of Juniper, Cooper added: “No luck, no judgement, just held on. There was no other option, I had to run straight.

“I managed to get out the other side, I was in a gear too high, the bike bogged. I just controlled myself, got back the gear before I went out the chicane, and drove up to the last corner there.

“It takes a brave man to pass someone at the last corner.

“It was such a relief. I enjoy winning Supertwin races but to win a Supersport race on a Saturday in front of these fans is something special.”

Cooper added that there was extra satisfaction to win on the Yamaha R6, now no longer Yamaha’s official Supersport-class machine having been replaced in the World Championship by the larger-capacity, three-cylinder R9.

“The Russell Racing Yamaha [team], we come here to win races and we’ve done it on the R6, on the dated bike, against the best,” he said.

“I’m only a part-time racer, [but] when I do turn up I try my best.”