NW200: Peter Hickman denies Richard Cooper for Supertwin double on Swan Yamaha

The 37-year-old was down in fifth place on the first lap on his Swan Yamaha as Cooper took the lead on the Ryan Farquhar-prepared Kawasaki, but Hickman worked his way through the pack to throw down his challenge to the Nottingham rider.

Cooper and Jeremy McWilliams swapped places at the front before Hickman set his sights on the leading duo after passing Mike Browne.

On the second lap, there was a three-way scrap for the lead as Hickman joined Cooper and McWilliams.

With two laps to go, Cooper’s lead was 0.4s over McWilliams on the Bayview Hotel Paton, who had 0.3s in hand over Hickman.

On the penultimate lap, Hickman moved into second at Metropole and began to hunt down Cooper.

With the race delicately poised, McWilliams fought back and passed Hickman for second on the approach to Coleraine before the Yamaha rider reclaimed the position on the brakes.

McWilliams dropped back slightly leaving Cooper and Hickman to fight it out and as they roared down to Portrush, Hickman took the lead with a clinical overtake on the brakes at Metropole.

He was able to put daylight between himself and Cooper on the run along the Coast Road and sealed his second win of the day by 0.855s, with McWilliams around six seconds down in third.

Browne came home in fourth on his Aprilia ahead of Christian Elkin (RB Engineering Kawasaki), while Barry Furber completed the top six on his Yamaha.