North West 200 wins race of the year at Adelaide Motorbike awards

The opening Superbike race of the 2014 Vauxhall International North West 200 has been voted the Race of the Year at the Adelaide Motorbike awards.

Race winner, William Dunlop, was presented with the trophy at a glittering ceremony in Belfast on Friday night.

The Tyco Suzuki star was involved in a thrilling last lap battle with his younger brother, Michael on the Motorrad Hawk BMW that had every race fan on their feet in the packed grandstands.

William had led the race from the start on wet roads before Michael caught and passed him going into Metropole on the final lap. Many people thought William’s race was over as Michael forged ahead on to the coast road section but William had other ideas. Going into the Juniper chicane he slipped past the BMW and held off a desperate challenge from his younger brother to take the chequered flag. 

The race brought back great memories for the fans of the their father, Robert and uncle Joey dicing around the seaside circuit back in the 90s and they voted in their thousands to put the race ahead of other great 2014 events like the Ulster Grand Prix Superstock race that was won by Dan Kneen on the Burrows Engineering/Cookstown Suzuki by just 1/1000th of a second!

“I am very proud to win this award.” William said as he received the trophy from MP, Ian Paisley and Paul McLean of McLean Bookmakers, sponsors of the award.

“It was my first International Superbike race win and it was great to get it at the North West, my home circuit.”