Thursday’s North West 200 practice hit with major delays after red flag incident

Thursday’s practice at the 2026 North West 200 has been hit with a major delay due to a red flag incident this morning during the opening Superbike session.

The 2026 North West 200 on Northern Ireland’s north coast began on Wednesday with a full day of qualifying action, though wet weather plagued running.

Conditions were perfect for Thursday’s qualifying beginning at 9:45am local time, ahead of the first races of the event this evening.

The Superbike session ultimately got underway at just after 9:50am local time, before it was brought to a halt at about 10:04am due to a red flag.

Little information has been given about the incident that led to the red flag, with organisers implementing an initial 45-minute delay.

At around 11:15am, a further one hour delay was announced, before that was extended to a further 90 minutes at around midday.

The original schedule was due to see Superbikes on track from 9:45am, before Supersport at 11am.

Superstock was to follow at midday, followed by a combined Supertwin/Sportbike session at 1pm.

Roads are due to close later on for the first three races this evening, with Superbikes scheduled for 5:30pm, followed by Supersport at 6:30pm and Superstock at 7:15pm.

Honda’s Dean Harrison was fastest at the point of the red flag with a lap of 123.12mph ahead of the returning Glenn Irwin on the Nitrous Competitions Racing Ducati.

Richard Cooper led the way on Wednesday in the wet on the BMW in the Superbike class, and was top in Supersport too.

Superstock qualifying on Wednesday was led by Josh Brookes, with ex-MotoGP rider Jeremy McWilliams topping the Supertwin/Sportbike times.

Racing will continue on Saturday at the North West 200, though it is unclear how much the disruption to qualifying today will affect the rest of the event’s schedule.

More to follow…