North West 200 confirms Saturday race schedule after Thursday cancellations

The North West 200’s Saturday race schedule has been confirmed following Thursday’s three cancellations.

Thursday (7 May) was due to have three races with a Superbike, Superstock, and Supersport race scheduled for yesterday evening.

However, none of them took place as a result of the postponement of qualifying on Thursday morning following the death of 48-year-old Czech rider Kamil Holan in the opening laps of the Superbike qualifying session.

The lack of morning qualifying for all classes meant that the sessions were moved to Thursday evening, preventing racing from taking place.

There was a possibility that some of the Thursday races could be rescheduled to Saturday, which already had six races scheduled, including two Superbike races.

However, the North West 200 has published its schedule for Saturday with no changes from the original plan, meaning none of the Thursday races have been rescheduled.

That means the main North West 200 race day will consist of six races, as originally planned, with two Superbike races, two Supertwin races, and one race each for Superstock and Supersport.

The races will run in the following order:

• Supertwin

• Superbike

• Supersport

• Superstock

• Supertwin

• Superbike

Roads are due to close on Saturday morning at 09:00, with the opening Supertwin race due to start at 10:00.

Thursday’s delayed qualifying sessions saw a different rider fastest in each class. Dean Harrison topped the Superbike practice for Honda Racing, then Peter Hickman went fastest by over a second in the Supertwin session aboard his PHR Performance Yamaha R7. Superstock qualifying was topped by Michael Dunlop on his BMW M1000 RR, while the Supersport session saw Alastair Seeley take pole position on his Ducati Panigale V2.

The Supersport session concluded the day’s running and was cut short after an incident in the section of track that runs through Whins area of Portrush, in which a rider crashed and was subsequently taken to hospital.