NW200: Double delight for Michael Dunlop after Superstock success on BMW
Michael Dunlop celebrated double delight at the Briggs Equipment North West 200 on Thursday following a faultless performance in the evening sunshine to win the opening Superstock race.
The Ballymoney rider had earlier crashed out in Superstock qualifying at the Magherabuoy chicane, but Dunlop wasn’t deterred as he won from Honda Racing’s Dean Harrison and Ian Hutchinson (MLav Racing BMW).
Following his first win since 2016 in the earlier Supersport race, he completed a quickfire brace on his MD Racing BMW M1000RR and has now won seven times at his home race.
Davey Todd, a double Superstock winner in 2024, was leading the race on the 8TEN Racing BMW but Dunlop was on a charge and had caught the English rider on the run towards Coleraine on the third lap.
Todd ran on at University and appeared to have an issue, but he turned his BMW around and rejoined the race.
Dunlop now had clear road ahead of him and he began to turn the screw, although he was just under one second ahead of Dean Harrison (Honda Racing UK) as they began their fourth and final lap.
With another win within his grasp, Dunlop wasn’t for catching and Harrison was unable to get close enough to threaten the Northern Ireland man, who won by 2.6s in the end.
Harrison was 5.6s clear of Hutchinson, with Todd fighting back to take fourth, five seconds further back.
Peter Hickman (8TEN Racing BMW) lost time when he ran on at Magherabuoy chicane and rallied to finish fifth, only 0.7s ahead of Josh Brookes (Jackson Racing Honda).
Conor Cummins was eighth on the Burrows/RK Racing BMW ahead of fellow Manxman Michael Evans (Dafabet Racing Honda).