Hondas lead the way in preperation for the NW200

John McGuiness ended the day second ahead of Saturdays NW 200

HM Plant Honda rider Steve Plater ended the first day of practice as the man to beat on the Triangle as he lapped at 118.45 mph in Tuesday evenings Superbike practice session for this weekend’s North West 200.

The Englishman has won eight times on this circuit, between the towns of Portrush, Port Stewart and Coleraine, and looked very comfortable on his bike throughout the sessions. His teammate John McGuiness backed him up in second at 117.42 mph and looked to have the better of Plater for most of the session as the riders bedded themselves into the track ahead of Thursday’s sessions. The weather is expected to close in for Thursday and rain is expected so riders knew it was important to set fast times in this session.

One rider that was showing a great turn of speed was Stuart Easton on the Swan Honda. He was clocked at 204.1 mph through the speed trap into University on his out lap and went even faster later in the session when he became the first man past 205 mph. Easton couldn’t match his fellow Honda riders throughout the rest of the lap and ended the day in third.

The first Irishman was Michael Dunlop in fourth at 116.87 mph. The local hero was as aggressive as ever on the roads and could spring a surprise on raceday. His brother William dominated the 125 session finishing it 1.5 mph ahead of Chris Palmer.

Superbike first practice times
1 Steve Plater (Honda) 118.45
2 John McGuinness (Honda) 117.42
3 Stuart Easton (Honda) 117.09
4 Michael Dunlop (Honda) 116.87
5 Conor Cummins (Kawasaki) 116.39
6 Ryan Farquhar (Kawasaki) 116.09

Supersport
1 Bruce Anstey (Suzuki) 114.00
2 William Dunlop (Yamaha) 113.76
3 Keith Amor (Honda) 113.36
4 Ryan Farquhar (Kawasaki) 113.32
5 Guy Martin (Honda) 113.18
6 Michael Dunlop (Yamaha) 113.06

125cc
1 William Dunlop (Honda) 96.73
2 Chris Palmer (Honda) 95.31
3 Renzo van der Donckt (Honda) 94.34