Seeley’s North West 200 double

Alastair Seeley clocked up his first North West 200 Superbike race win when he took the second race of the day and earlier in the day he had scored his first Supersport 600 NW200 win.

Beating Padgett Honda’s Ian Hutchinson by seven tenths of a second, – in what developed into a great day for the Relentless by TAS Suzuki team – he also played a major role in his other two races, finishing fourth in the second Supersport and in the Superstock.

Seeley’s two previous NW200 race wins came in the Superstock class.

The first Superbike race produced a thrilling scrap between  eventual winner John McGuinness on the HM Plant Honda and Conor Cummins on the McAdoo Kawasaki, with Seeley’s impressive charge from fifth on the second lap taking him past team-mate Bruce Anstey and  then BMW-mounted Keith Amor for third on the final lap.

In the second superbike race Seeley – on the Relentless by TAS Suzuki had to outfox Stuart Easton on the Swan Honda with a hard charge into Church on the final lap to secure a well-earned victory.

Seeley’s win in the 600 race required equally impressive persistence as he passed the Hondas of Keith Amor and Ian Hutchinson in the final lap to win on a GSX-R600 that he’d not ridden since last year’s NW200.

Hutchinson, though, got his moment of glory with a runaway win on the Padgetts Honda in the second Supersport race.

Keith Amor missed a gear at Mathers and lost ground and even though he pushed hard, he wasn’t able to bridge the gap. After a quiet day in his other races, Anstey finished third.

Amor beat Hutchinson in the Superstock race though – his BMW clearly having the legs on Hutchinson’s Honda along the wide-open straights.