SATURDAY'S North West 200 was one to forget for organisers, fans and racers. A huge oil spill meant that four of the day's five races were cancelled and to make matters worse, the paddock had to be evacuated after a bomb scare.
Torrential rain forced organisers to reduce each six lap race down to five with two sighting laps. The Supersport race was a closely fought battle between Alistair Seeley and Australian Cameron Donald who swapped the lead throughout the five lap wet race. Eventually it was local Seeley on his Relentless TAS Suzuki GSX-R600 who took the win by 0.824 from the Wilson Craig Honda of Donald.
Shortly after the Supersport race organisers were forced to evacuate the paddock on police advice following a security alert. A coded message was received and a suspicious package was located in the paddock area.
Riders were called back to the grid in heavy rain after a fifty minute delay, only to be confronted by a 'standing water' sign. Guy Martin, Martin Jessop and even Michael Rutter - who has seen success at previous wet NW200s - all opted out of racing in Superbike race one. Due to the weather and fears from racers, race organizers were forced to shorten the race again from five laps down to four with two sighting laps.
However, the Superbike race was red flagged after Ryan Farquhar's Kawasaki ZX-10R's engine blew up and spilled oil over almost a mile of the course.
Despite the organiser's best effort to clean the slick, the rest of the day's races were cancelled as riders were still complaining of slippery conditions. Alistair Seeley commented, "it's too dangerous for racing."
North West technical Director Mervyn Whyte said: “I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this year’s Relentless International NW200, for their patience and support today and we look forward to running a full programme next year.”
