Alastair Seeley took victory in the only race to go ahead at the North West 200 on Saturday, and later admitted he was expecting more of the same before the event was cancelled.
Heavy rain caused havoc with the schedule on race day, but the Carrickfergus rider coped best in the treacherous conditions to edge out Cameron Donald in the opening Supersport race.
Considering the quality of the competition he was up against, Seeley was ecstatic to have guided the Suzuki GSX-R600 to victory.
“That’s an International Road Racing victory to add to the British Supersport win at Brands for the new GSX-R600. It was a great race to be involved in and even more pleasing to beat what is basically a World Supersport specification Honda. I knew I would be stronger into the chicanes despite Cameron using traction control on his bike, as the brakes on the new GSX-R600 are one of its best features and that gave me a lot of confidence in the wet.”
The Relentless Suzuki star lined up on the third row of the grid for the Superbike race which was delayed after a bomb scare caused the paddock to be evacuated.
Seeley was expecting another strong performance but when Ryan Farquhar's KMR Kawasaki dumped oil all over the road between Church corner and the Juniper chicane, any hopes of further racing disappeared with just one lap of the Superbike race completed.
“In the Superbike race, the plan was the pick them off and get into the lead so I wouldn’t have to sit in anyone’s spray”, he explained. “The speed of my GSX-R1000 was far superior to Ryan and Michael’s bikes and the way it was set-up, I was actually enjoying it spinning up down the big straights in the wet.”
“I was ready to pull the pin and just ride my own race, so it was disappointing to see a red flag on lap two. I really felt like I was in control this week in all classes and having felt so comfortable in the wet I think we’d have been hard to beat.”
Team Manager Phillip Neill also felt Seeley would have been a major force had the race continued, but he accepted that conditions were far too dangerous.
“We dearly wanted the Superbike race to run full distance as in all honesty with Alastair coming through from the third row of the grid to lead within a lap, there was no beating the wee Carrickfergus man, although it was the correct decision to stop the race and eventually abandon the meeting on safety grounds.”
