It’s that time of year again to savour the sights and sounds of high speed motorcycles racing around the 8.9-mile Triangle circuit on the north coast of Northern Ireland.
The North West 200 regularly attracts the world’s leading exponents of racing on closed public roads on some of the most exotic machinery on the planet, with an atmosphere to match as tens of thousands of spectators thrill to the action trackside.
BBC Sport NI will provide exclusive full live-streamed coverage of every qualifying session and every race on BBC iPlayer and worldwide on the BBC Sport website and app.
The qualifying sessions on Wednesday 7 May and Thursday 8 May will be broadcast from 10:00 BST to 14:45.
Coverage of Thursday’s racing will be streamed from 17:00 to 20:30 BST and Saturday’s race programme will be shown from 09:00 to 18:30.
Tight, gripping, to close to call, are perennial phrases attributed to the Supersport class at the Briggs Equipment Northwest 200.
A virtual who’s who of international road racing is set to duke it out, for middleweight category honours next week.
Winner of three of the last four NW200 Supersport races, two times National Superstock 1000 Champion Davey Todd switches back from Powertoolmate Ducati equipment to Milenco by Padgetts Honda apparatus.
Twice twins category winner in 2024, Ulster GP, TT Races lap record holder Peter Hickman returns with Swan Yamaha metal.
Whilst more touted for his enviable record on Supersport, 1000cc equipment, Hickman demonstrated last year that he’s a world class operator on Yamaha’s R7 model.
Will he make it four successive Twins race triumphs? It’s a clear-cut possibility as is Richard Cooper putting KMR Kawasaki back on top, having dominated 2022, 2023 category encounters.
Widely considered the most pertinent class to manufacturers, Superstock tussles at all roads scene events, continuously yield high speed, thrilling activity. Expect it be ‘Slip Stream City’ during the upcoming Briggs Equipment Northwest 200.
The one to beat in 2024, 8TEN Racing BMW’s Davey Todd is looking to continue his category supremacy.
Few events boast such rich history, allure as roads scene ‘Major’, the Briggs Equipment Northwest 200. The bulk of international road racing’s goliaths are Coleraine bound next week. With eleven times successive Superbike class winner Glenn Irwin, now retired from real roads outings, the door is a jar for potential new big-bike victors.
Runner-up x3 in 2024 to Irwin, King of The Roads Champion Davey Todd returns with a point to prove. It’s same vibes and some towards TT wins record holder Michael Dunlop.
‘Maverick’ showed at Cookstown that he’s already looking pretty-handy, with new M1000RR BMW apparatus, besting his own existing Orritor Circuit lap-record on route to a first Grand Final race triumph since 2013.
