North West 200 newcomer excluded after breaching qualifying rule he didn’t know

Illiam Quayle has been ruled out of the 2026 North West 200 road racing event after failing to satisfy a qualifying rule he was unaware of. 

Quayle is the son of former road racer and current Isle of Man TT rider liaison officer Richard ‘Milky’ Quayle, and had been signed up by Ian Lougher’s Team ILR squad for his North West 200 debut this week (6–9 May).

The North West 200’s newcomer procedure involves a specific weekend for course familiarisation in February and a briefing on the Tuesday of race week before a dedicated newcomers’ practice on Wednesday. 

Quayle attended both the newcomers’ weekend in February and the newcomers’ briefing on Tuesday (5 May), but was ruled out after the newcomers’ practice.

This was because he was unable to complete five laps of the famous Triangle course. The ruling means he is unable to take part in any of the remaining sessions this week, including the Supersport and Supertwin races he was slated to race for Team ILR.

In a Facebook post, Quayle explained that he was unable to complete five laps because of technical problems on his bike, and says that he was not made aware of the five-lap requirement for the newcomers’ session in order to be able to continue the weekend.

“After months of preparation and planning, we arrived at the NW200 ready to race, as ready as I've ever been, with feelings of excitement and nerves,” Quayle wrote in a Facebook post this morning (7 May).

“Wednesday morning on the grid ready to do my speed controlled laps.

“I was following the very experienced John Burrows in the third wave of Newcomers. 

“Lap one someone in the wave before me crashed and the session was red flagged, my group got held on the course so never completed a full lap, we got taken back to the grid and after a few minutes on [tyre] warmers were told to go again.

“I got into a great rhythm and had three good laps, unfortunately on lap four I had an intermittent misfiring so safely pulled over to the side to try and figure out what was going on.

“It started up again with no problem so rejoined the session only for it to happen again, so again safely pulled to the side where it just stopped so couldn't continue the session and got bought back in the recovery truck.

“All good I thought.

“Until about an hour later lan [Lougher] got a call from the organisers to say I couldn't continue with the meeting as I hadn't qualified?

“Apparently unbeknownst to me I needed to do five full laps in that single six-lap session.

“Not once was I told that [it’s necessary] to qualify for qualifying, I did the compulsory Newcomers NW200 weekend in February and it was never mentioned, I did the Newcomers briefing on Tuesday and nothing was said then, other than it was [four- or five-] lap session behind an instructor.

“Obviously, myself and Team ILR are devastated by this, we haven't asked to bend the rules and allow me to ride, all that has been asked is that I can go out again at the end of any session today/tomorrow with an instructor to complete the last quarter of my laps and have been met with a flat ‘no’, so it seems they have zero contingency for this eventuality which to me seems very unfair.

“It seems they would rather I had carried on and risk myself and potentially others just to qualify for qualifying.

“If I was slow, unprepared and inexperienced I would fully accept this decision, but to be a quarter of a lap short to even get into qualifying stings… A lot.”