North West 200 'has always suited BSB riders' says road racing legend Michael Dunlop after Superstock showdown with Storm Stacey

Dunlop, event newcomer Stacey and Josh Brookes treated thousands of fans to a gripping showdown in Saturday’s race, which was restarted over four laps following a red flag.

With nothing between them, the lead changed hands several times on the last lap before Stacey made a decisive pass on the run to Portrush.

The 23-year-old was ahead into Metropole, but Dunlop was denied the chance to fight back on the Coast Road after he lost the rear of his BMW, dropping to third behind Australian Brookes (DAO Racing Honda).

Stacey closed out a dream debut win by 1.260s and set a new Superstock lap record at 124.498mph, while Dunlop clinched the runner-up spot with a pass on Brookes at Juniper chicane.

“The race was hard, just lack of bike time sort of caught me out a bit,” Dunlop said.

“These boys are so hard on the brakes, even Josh as well, they’re really deep brakers and I just struggled a little bit on the brakes.

“I knew I was going to be hung out to dry at some point. We struggled with a tyre to suit here all day for the big bikes for some reason, and I think it transferred from the big bike [Superbike] to the ’stocker now, and we just seemed to lose a bit of grip.

“I knew it was going to come down to Metropole and I turned it in, opened the throttle and it let go again, so I was struggling a bit for edge grip.

“But he rode a better race, he was strong, very strong on the brakes, and he made it work for himself,” added the Ballymoney man.

“If you’re a BSB rider at all, you can win here, and because you don’t do BSB, you sort of get hindered a wee bit by the BSB boys because they’re used to braking so late every week and that’s what they do.

“That’s why the North West 200 has always suited the BSB riders.”