Glenn Irwin became the most successful Superbike rider in the history of the North West 200 as he took victory in both of Saturday’s races in the premier class.
Having won Thursday’s four-lap big bike sprint on his PBM Ducati, Irwin again twice edged out Milwaukee BMW rival Davey Todd at a sundrenched Triangle circuit to make it a hat-trick of big bike wins this week.
The Northern Irishman’s triumphs saw him extend his remarkable winning sequence in the Superbikes to 11 races and pull two clear of the previous benchmark achieved by Michael Rutter and the late Joey Dunlop. Irwin, 34, has now won every Superbike race from race two in 2017 until the present day.
Todd clinched his fourth Supersport win over the Triangle by coming home ahead of Thursday’s 600cc winner Richard Cooper by 0.46 seconds.
Riding his Powertoolmate Ducati V2, the English rider had his Yamaha-mounted rival on his wheeltracks over the six laps, Cooper being pipped at the end despite leading going into the final lap and during part of lap five. Dunlop was third and set the fastest lap of the race on his final circuit with a speed of 117.709mph.
Later in the day Todd made it a Superstock double, a hat-trick for the meeting and six career wins at the event with 1.5 seconds to spare over runner-up Hickman in race two in that class.
John McGuinness, 52, was a hugely popular third-place finisher after Dean Harrison retired out of second position.
The opening Supertwins race turned into a titanic tussle between leading English riders Hickman and Cooper, with the former emerging the victor by just half a second to take his third North West win.
The second race followed a very similar pattern as Cooper led until Metropole on the last circuit, when Hickman again made his move and pulled away on the closing section, having a 0.855 second advantage at the flag.
McWilliams stayed with the top two in the early stages to make it a three-way joust and although he fell off the pace the 60-year-old took third.
