Davey Todd took his first International road race win on Saturday afternoon when he took a hard fought Supersport race victory at the North West 200 from Derek McGee and Milenco by Padgetts Honda team-mate Conor Cummins.
Conditions around the 8.9-mile circuit were pretty treacherous all round, which led to a number of the leading riders to opt out of proceedings, but the trio, along with Paul Jordan, were never more than a few machine lengths apart. Indeed, the wet weather didn’t prevent any high-speed slipstreaming and they were often three abreast on the run into University.
McGee (B&W/Diamond Edge Kawasaki) led off the line before Todd took over at Mathers Cross with Cummins and Jordan close behind in third and fourth. Christian Elkin slotted into fifth before going on to have a lonely ride a long way adrift.
The front four remained close though with Cummins going through the speed trap at 176mph and the third lap saw McGee nose ahead once more into University. Todd proved to be the stronger on the brakes though and regained the lead at Mathers whilst Jordan dropped back on the first half of the lap before clawing back the ground on the second half.
The fourth of six laps saw McGee take over into Mathers on this occasion but Todd drew alongside on the brakes coming into Metropole to lead once more. Cummins continued to keep a watching brief in third but on the following lap, he hit the front for the first time.
It proved to be short lived though and on the sixth and last lap, Todd opened up a half second gap as they headed down towards Coleraine. It would prove to be enough and although McGee thought about a move into Metropole, it wasn’t to be and Todd – last year’s best newcomer – took a superb victory by 0.340s with Cummins only two tenths of a second further back in third.
Jordan fell three seconds behind the leading group to take fourth with Elkin in fifth. Joseph Loughlin, Darren Cooper, Tom Weeden, Marty Lennon and Michael Rees completed the top ten.
