Coleraine road racing prospect Lee Hara 'can't wait' for dream North West 200 debut with FAO Racing in May

Hara has impressed throughout his short career and caught the eye at the Manx Grand Prix in 2025, when he finished 15th in the headline Senior race and lapped the Mountain Course at over 116mph as a 19-year-old newcomer.

Hara is following in the footsteps of his father William, who raced on the roads for a decade and competed on the big stage at the North West.

He only made his road racing debut in 2024 but finished fourth in the Senior and Junior Support races at the Cookstown 100, and narrowly missed out on a podium result at Armoy by less than a second, taking fourth in the Senior Support race.

Hara progressed through the short circuit ranks in the Ulster Superbike Championship and won the Ulster Supersport Cup series in 2023 when he was only 18-years-old.

However, road racing has always been his dream and it will be a special moment for Hara when he takes his place on the North West 200 grid in May for Ballymoney team FAO Racing.

“I can’t wait, I’m racing a Yamaha R6 and an Aprilia RS660 for FAO Racing, so a Supersport and Supertwin and I can’t wait to get out there,” said Hara, who joined fellow NW200 newcomers on the north coast on Thursday.

“I’ve watched on-board coverage of the boys slipstreaming but it’ll be interesting to see how it is and how it feels.

“I’ll do a few track days and then we’ll go to the Cookstown 100, and it’ll be the North West after that. It’ll just be getting the bike dialled in for it and then see what changes we’ll need to make at the North West.

“I just want to learn as much as I can and learn off the others; if I can get in behind someone and see what I can learn off them, I’ll take that option.

“It’s a new team for me this year and I can’t thank all the team for giving me this opportunity.”

Hara’s father William is a huge influence in his racing career and the young prospect said his dad’s support has been instrumental in his progress to date.

“My dad did the road racing and he did the North West as well, so I had my first bike at three years-old – I think it was a wee PW50 Yamaha,” Hara said.

“I just did motocross right up until I was 13-years-old and then in 2013 I got a Supermoto pit bike and won an Irish title, and then I went onto the bigger bikes.

“I got a scholarship from the IMC to ride their Tianda 300 and I took the first ever win in that class and on that bike, and I was second in the Moto3 championship and Moto One, and third in the Supertwin championship.

“I won the Supersport Cup championship and it was the year after that when I went road racing; I always wanted to do the road racing and my dad did for 10 years, and that’s always what I wanted to do.

“I told my dad that I wanted to go road racing and that’s the route I was going. He supports me a lot and if it wasn’t for him, it wouldn’t be possible.”

Hara is right at the beginning of his road racing career but like most riders, his dream is to one day become a NW200 and TT winner.

“Winning at the North West and the TT – that’s what my goals are,” he said. “That would be special.”