North West 200 newcomer told “not once” about rule that excluded him

North West 200 newcomer Illiam Quayle was ruled out of this year’s edition of the Northern Irish road race event after failing to satisfy a rule he was “not once” told about.

Quayle, who is the son of former road racer and current Isle of Man TT rider liaison officer Richard ‘Milky’ Quayle, was set to compete in the North West 200 for the first time this year with Ian Lougher’s Team ILR and had taken part in the newcomers’ event in February, as well as the newcomers’ briefing earlier this week on Tuesday (5 May).

Quayle was able to start the first newcomers’ practice on Wednesday morning as a result, but he was unable to complete the required five laps during the session that would have allowed him to continue the weekend as a result of technical problems. He was consequently ruled out of the remainder of the event, and says he was unaware of the six-lap requirement.

“After months of preparation and planning, we arrived at the NW200 ready to race, as ready as I've ever been, with feelings of excitement and nerves,” Quayle wrote in a Facebook post this morning (7 May).

“Wednesday morning on the grid ready to do my speed controlled laps.

“I was following the very experienced John Burrows in the third wave of Newcomers. 

“Lap 1 someone in the wave before me crashed and the session was red flagged, my group got held on the course so never completed a full lap, we got taken back to the grid and after a few minutes on [tyre] warmers were told to go again.

“I got into a great rhythm and had three good laps, unfortunately on lap four I had an intermittent misfiring so safely pulled over to the side to try and figure out what was going on.

“It started up again with no problem so rejoined the session only for it to happen again, so again safely pulled to the side where it just stopped so couldn't continue the session and got bought back in the recovery truck.

“All good I thought.

“Until about an hour later lan [Lougher] got a call from the organisers to say I couldn't continue with the meeting as I hadn't qualified?

“Apparently unbeknownst to me I needed to do five full laps in that single six-lap session.

“Not once was I told that [it’s necessary] to qualify for qualifying, I did the compulsory Newcomers NW200 weekend in February and it was never mentioned, I did the Newcomers briefing on Tuesday and nothing was said then, other than it was [four- or five-] lap session behind an instructor.

“Obviously, myself and Team ILR are devastated by this, we haven't asked to bend the rules and allow me to ride, all that has been asked is that I can go out again at the end of any session today/tomorrow with an instructor to complete the last quarter of my laps and have been met with a flat ‘no’, so it seems they have zero contingency for this eventuality which to me seems very unfair.

“It seems they would rather I had carried on and risk myself and potentially others just to qualify for qualifying.

“If I was slow, unprepared and inexperienced I would fully accept this decision, but to be a quarter of a lap short to even get into qualifying stings… A lot.”