One of the highlights of the local sporting calendar is fast approaching, and BBC Sport NI is once again gearing up to provide bike fans with comprehensive coverage of this year’s North West 200 International road races.

The event, which is now in its 83rd year, attracts bikers and fans of road racing from all corners of the world to Northern Ireland’s beautiful north coast. Tens of thousands of fans will line the nine mile circuit on race day to see the best riders in the world pit their wits against each other at speeds approaching 200mph.

With changes to the format of race week, there will be some changes to BBC Sport NI’s coverage this year across TV, radio and online.

Shane Glynn, Editor BBC Sport NI said: “The team at BBC Sport NI are all very much looking forward to what will be our sixth consecutive North West 200 as primary broadcasters. Last year Mervyn Whyte and his colleagues had no luck whatsoever with the weather and other factors they just couldn’t have legislated for - fingers crossed for a fuller day’s racing this year on Saturday May 19th.

“The additional two races on the Thursday night, and the two day time practice sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, will present us and our colleagues at Greenlight TV with new challenges. We’ll be showing the two new races live via our website, and you can also catch highlights of them on an extended Friday night preview programme on BBC One NI which will come live from the paddock. These highlights will also feature in our two one hour highlights programmes that will be shown on Sunday, May 20 and Monday, May 21.

“The most important element of our coverage is team work, and we’re again looking forward to working closely with Mervyn and his team to provide race fans with the best possible coverage of this year’s North West 200.”

Thanking Shane and the full BBC NW200 team, Mervyn Whyte MBE, Technical Director said, “The BBC team continue to deliver a fantastic range of global coverage and each year add new and creative dimensions to their output. The high caliber production provides an exciting mix of radio, TV and online coverage which reaches millions of people worldwide. Everyone at Coleraine and District Motor Club would like to wholeheartedly thank Shane Glynn and the team at BBC Sport NI for their hard work and professionalism and we look forward to another first class partnership.”

Coverage of the NW 200 on BBC NI TV will include the extended Friday night programme, and the two one-hour highlights programmes, all presented by Stephen Watson and Phillip McCallen. There will also be reports and special features from behind-the-scenes on BBC Newsline throughout race week. Both practice sessions and every race will be live on the BBC Sport NI website (bbc.co.uk/sportni). Radio Ulster MW will have live coverage of the practice session on Thursday, and a special preview programme on Friday night. The ever popular Summer Club, hosted by Joel Taggart and Michael McNamee, will be live throughout race day, featuring live commentary on all the races.

The television coverage will be provided by Greenlight TV, and will feature up to 28 camera angles provided by trackside cameras, the aerial helicopter camera and on-board cameras.

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