Jamie Coward will line up in pole position for the North West 200 Supertwin races with the KTS Racing rider’s time from Tuesday afternoon seeing him hold on to the top spot.
The Yorkshireman placed third quickest in Thursday morning’s second session, which was held in cooler, cloudier conditions compared to Tuesday, but his time of 4m57.829s meant he remained in pole although the gap to second placed Michael Rutter on the Bathams KMR Kawasaki was just 0.2s.
Indeed, the top six on the grid were covered by just 1.1s with Derek McGee elevating himself up the order after topping the leaderboard on Thursday. The KMR Kawasaki rider’s time of 4m58.492s saw him close to within 0.4s of Rutter and will line up alongside him on the front row.
Glenn Irwin, on the second KTS Racing Kawasaki, was another rider to improve on Thursday, lapping just over a tenth slower than McGee, and he’ll head the second row from Stefano Bonetti on the lead Paton, the Italian rider also going quicker today.
Former British 125cc Champion Christian Elkin completes the second row on his Kawasaki with Jeremy McWilliams lining up in seventh although he was an early casualty in today’s 45-minute session sliding off at the Magherabuoy chicane.
Horst Saiger, on another Paton, took eighth on the combined times with Michael Sweeney and last year’s Junior Manx GP winner James Chawke completing the top ten.
John McGuinness retired at Mill Road in today’s session and will line up in 18th on the grid, his best lap time some 14 seconds slower than Coward.
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