Kyle White: Disaster averted on arduous day at North West 200

PFollowing a week of glorious sunny weather on the North Coast, heavy rain and grey skies greeted the thousands of fans who turned out to watch the best line-up of riders and machinery you will see at any road race this year.

It was a shock to the system, for although some showers had been predicted in the forecast for Saturday, the extent of the heavy rain was a complete surprise.

There was no let-up throughout the morning and the trend for the day was set when a delay ensued after Daley Mathison crashed at Black Hill on the warm-up lap for the first Supersport race.

When the race got underway at 11.10am after the track had been cleared, another red flag incident occurred as David Murphy came off, also at Black Hill.

A number of the leading riders reported that section of the course as being especially treacherous, with James Hillier surviving a huge moment on the opening lap on his Quattro Plant Kawasaki, which was witnessed by 24-time winner Alastair Seeley, who was tucked in behind the Hampshire man on his EHA Racing Yamaha.

Seeley said: “If Hillier had gone down then it could have had a whole domino effect, which is not what we want. It wasn’t so bad at the start of the race and when we got to Black Hill, James was leading and just as he crested the top of the rise, the rear stepped out and I thought he was going down.

“When I saw the moment he had I knew something wasn’t right at that area, although I didn’t have quite as bad a moment as James had. Some of the other guys said they had moments as well once we got stopped on that second lap,” he added.

“We’re already looking for traction with wet tyres on a wet road, so when something else adds to that then it’s not ideal.”

Race chief Mervyn Whyte was accompanied by Hillier and Thursday’s race winner, Lee Johnston, to inspect the area where the riders were reporting problems. The road was cleaned three times in total on Saturday.

As this was taking place, the Fire Service and NIE Engineers were called to reports of a smoking power cable at Heatherlea Avenue near York corner in Portstewart.

It turned out that an earlier incident in Portrush, when a helicopter collided with power lines – rendering over 1,200 homes without electricity – caused a surge, which led to the problem in Portstewart. This caused a further delay as the problems continued to mount up. You couldn’t make it up.

The riders eventually formed up on the grid again for the Supersport race on wet roads and the race got underway at 1.50pm, although a number of top names decided to sit it out, including Johnston, Dean Harrison, Hillier, Michael Dunlop and Ian Hutchinson.

Seeley was leading on the approach to University when his Yamaha suffered an apparent engine failure, dropping oil onto the track. The red flags came out again when Spain’s Victor Lopez came off at Black Hill.

At this point, the prospects of any racing being successfully completed seemed bleak at best, yet Whyte steadfastly ploughed on, dealing with each setback as it arose.