"I'll certainly not be doing a rain dance for Thursday," was reigning North West 200 champion Alastair Seeley's opening comment, after what can only be described as a tough opening qualifying session at the Vauxhall International North West 200 for the Kawasaki rider.

A holed radiator on his Gearlink Supersport machine and a seizure on his ZX10R MSS Superbike left him sitting frustrated on the sidelines, as his main rivals filled the main qualifying positions in yesterday's sessions.

It leaves Seeley in a precarious position going into Thursday morning's final qualifying session, and any chance of rain could see the Wee Wizard pushed back into the second group for Thursday night's Supersport action – and the full programme on race day Saturday.

In real terms, it would ruin any chance of victory, unless that is, he can win from the second group on corrected time, which is far from ideal, or morally correct in my opinion, at what is essentially, a 'first past the post' mass start racing event.

"Trying to win from the second wave is all about the whole clear track thing," Seeley explained.

"Yes, (Michael) Rutter was able to do that to me last year in the Superstock race, but you still have to be able to do the lap times on your own and it's easier said than done," Seeley explained, giving The Blade full credit for his achievement 12 months ago; ironically on an MSS Kawasaki.

Doing well to hide his disappointment, Seeley recounted his Supersport problems in detail.

"I came in after the first lap to put tape on the radiator as the temperature was low. But when I went back out a stone must have flicked up and holed the radiator, and by the time I reached Coleraine, the temperature was over 100 degrees."

Looking for answers in his cup of tea he added: "I cruised round to the pits, but by the time I got to Metropole it was jumping five degrees at a time and reached about 140 degrees. Pretty hot eh? The boys did get me back out and it felt okay but whether we change the motor or leave it for Thursday now I'm not sure."

With an engine problem halting his Superbike progress in the very next session, firing him into yet another non qualifiers' list; to top the last session of the day in the Superstock class – with the second fastest time of the day overall – gave the Carrickfergus man something to remain positive about overnight.

"After the disappointment of the other two sessions I just put my head down on the Superstock bike and never even checked the temperature. I got up to speed pretty quickly and I think I did three laps in the 'thirty-threes'," he said.

Summing up he concluded: "There's more to come from that bike and it feels pretty good. With a new tyre fired in there I think we can go as quick as most of the Superbike times."



Superbike: 1st M. Dunlop 118.210mph, 2nd B. Anstey 115.005, 3rd G. Martin 114.685, 4th D. Harrison 114.152, 5th J. Brookes 113.873, 6th W. Dunlop 113.798

Superstock: 1st A. Seeley 118.046mph, 2nd M. Dunlop 117.237, 3rd J. McGuinness 117.189, 4th B. Anstey 116.747, 5th G. Johnson 116.674, 6th M. Rutter 116.201

Supersport: 1st J. McGuinness 111.995mph, 2nd B. Anstey 111.486, 3rd G. Martin 111.241, 4th W. Dunlop 111.162, 5th S. Easton 110.756, 6th M. Dunlop 110.533

Supertwin: 1st J. McWilliams 104.778, 2nd M. Rutter 104.723, 3rd W. Davison 104.260, 4th J. Hamilton 104.249, 5th M. Dunlop 103.076, 6th J. Hillier 103.958




Paul Lindsay
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