North West 200 – success on the roads for Evotech Performance
It’s been another successful weekend for the Evotech Performance-supported race teams, but this time they swapped the race track for public roads. The 2018 road racing season officially kicked off with the North West 200 (NW200), an 8.970-mile triangle road course that runs between the towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush in Northern Ireland, and it couldn’t have started any better…
In Thursday’s Superstock race, EP-supported teams clinched a podium clean sweep, with Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing BMW) taking the honours, followed by Alastair Seeley (Tyco BMW) and Michael Dunlop (BMW - MD Racing) completing the podium. But there was further success to come as road racing veteran Michael Rutter, who was also running Evotech Performance Accessories on his Bathams Racing BMW, crossed the line in fourth, making it a one-two-three-four result for our supported teams!
These positive results continued into Saturday’s Superstock race, but it was a reversal of fortune for Seeley and Hickman who this time out placed one-two on the podium respectively after Seeley stole the lead on the final lap. It was then Michael Dunlop who crossed the line in fourth, Dan Kneen (Tyco BMW) was fifth and Rutter completed the race in 14th position.
In Saturday’s Superbike double header, Glenn Irwin (PBM Be Wiser Ducati) led both races from start to finish adding to his success at last year’s event. Under perfect conditions, Irwin made a good start in the first race of the day, building his lead before going on the clinch the victory just one second from Dean Harrison (Kawasaki). After another win earlier that morning on the Yamaha R6 in the Supersport class, Seeley placed fifth on the Tyco BMW.
Despite the day’s seven-lap feature race and final event of the day being red flagged, Irwin once again worked hard to build his lead before comfortably coasting to victory almost ten seconds ahead of second-placed Michael Dunlop. Seeley crossed the line in tenth.
The teams can now take advantage of a short break in proceedings before the Isle of Man TT Festival begins on 28 May. Watch this space for more on our supported riders ahead of the world’s most prestigious road racing event…