Alistair Seeley continued to lead the way at the Northwest 200, topping all three classes and taking pole position for Saturday’s Superbike races on the Tyco BMW.
“All of the bikes are working well and it just seemed that all the riders who start in front of me are coming back to me,” Seeley said.
Seeley looks to be the man to beat, finishing 2.479 seconds faster than second placed Lee Johnston on the ECC/Burdens BMW with a lap time of 121.552 mph.
“We have a little issue with the brakes and hopefully when we get that sorted we will go faster,” Johnston said. “I only did two flying laps before I came in and those are the first two dry laps I have had on the bike.”
For Johnston, second was welcome after a rough where he failed to get in a lap during the Supersport session on the ECC/Burdens Triumph. The clutch broke on the opening lap and after Johnston returned to the pits and had it replaced he was forced to retire when the coil packed on the next lap.
Veteran John McGuinness, celebrating was third fastest on the factory Honda Fireblade.
“Don’t sound so surprised!” the 21 times TT winner joked. “I knew we had a strong package and that I would be competitive. The front row is where you need to be and it’s a bonus because all of the best road racers in the world are here. I am in amongst all the fast kids on the fast bikes in the fast teams.”
The TT lap record holder, Bruce Anstey, was fourth fastest on the Padgett’s Valvoline Honda. William Dunlop was fifth quickest on a second Tyco BMW in spite of injuring his left hip after he highsided at York on the CD Racing Yamaha during the Supersport session.
Thirteen times North West winner Michael Rutter finished just behind Dunlop on the Penz13.com BMW.
Last year’s feature race winner, Michael Dunlop trailed Seeley by 5.5 seconds on the Milwaukee Yamaha in seventh.
Dunlop fared better in the Superstock class where he was only .752 of a second slower than Seeley on the stock version of the Milwaukee R1 with Lee Johnston once again making the top three on the ECR/Burdens BMW.
Ryan Farquhar topped the listings in the Supertwins class on his SGS/KMR Kawasaki ahead of VRS Kawasaki’s Martin Jessopp and Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s James Hillier. Grand Prix legend Jeremy McWilliams was fourth quickest on the other SGS/KMR Kawasaki.
In the Supersport class Bruce Anstey was second, trailing Seeley by .695 of a second. William Dunlop was third in spite of his crash at York, which red flagged the session. Newcomer Glenn Irwin qualified fourth on the Gear Link Kawasaki.
