2008 North West 200 Races

November 2019 The 2008 North West 200 took place on Saturday 17 May at the 8.966 mile circuit, dubbed "The Triangle", based around the towns of Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart, in Northern Ireland. The meeting was overshadowed by the death of Northern Irish rider Robert Dunlop, the record-holder for wins at the circuit, who was killed in a practice crash on 15 May. The 47-year-old had been travelling in a group of three riders at the Mather's Cross section of the course, when his bike seized at 160 mph. He would later succumb to his injuries in a Coleraine hospital. Robert's sons Michael and William continued to race at the meeting, with Michael winning the 250cc race. Practice John McGuinness dominated qualifying for the 250cc race, the first to be contested on race day. McGuinness went round the 8.966 mile circuit in a time of 4'57.791, the only rider to break five minutes and qualified on pole by over 3 seconds from the Hondas of Michael Dunlop and Paul Robinson. Hondas took the first eight places on the grid, with Henrik Voit's Aprilia the best non-Honda in ninth. McGuinness also dominated Superbike practice, being fastest both on Tuesday and on Thursday. Having achieved a 4'25.377 on Tuesday, he lowered that mark by over 3 seconds to a 4'22.342 on Thursday. Michael Rutter on the NW200-backed Ducati qualified 2nd on a 4'22.999, with the rest in the 4'24s or higher. This session sets the grid for both Superbike races. Steve Plater qualified on pole for the Supersport races, recording a lap of 4'33.749 on Thursday to put him half a second clear of Alastair Seeley, who qualified second, with Keith Amor qualifying 3rd, to give three different nations placed in the top three places. Amor would go two places better in the qualifying session for the Superstock race. In the fourth session, he set a time of 4'26.446, which would give him the pole by over 1.5 seconds. Seeley was second with his time of 4'28.029 coming in session three and Rutter was third, with a 4'28.138 set in session four. Michael Wilcox was the clear pacesetter in the 125cc qualifying, setting a pole lap of 5'17.528 and was on top by nearly three seconds from the Aprilia of David Lemon with the Hondas of Mark Curtin, Michael Dunlop and Chris Palmer rounding out the top five. Leo Aldersley's Yamaha was fastest in the 400cc session, which occurred at the same time as the 125cc session as those two races are contested in the one race, albeit separated on track. His 5'15.329 was almost three seconds faster than second placed qualifier and fellow Yamaha rider, Oliver Linsdell. Les Shand's Kawasaki was third, with the best Honda belonging to Manxman David Madsen-Mygdal lining up fourth. Races Race 1; 250cc Race final standings Saturday 17 May 2008 4 laps – 35.724 miles Rank Rider Team Time Speed 1 NIR Michael Dunlop Honda 250cc 19' 34.316 109.516 mph 2 ENG Christian Elkin Honda 250cc + 1.029 109.420 mph 3 ENG John McGuinness Honda 250cc + 1.763 109.352 mph 4 NIR Paul Robinson Honda 250cc + 22.725 107.437 mph 5 NIR Andrew Neill Honda 250cc + 24.543 107.274 mph 6 NIR Davy Morgan Honda 250cc + 24.614 107.268 mph 7 NIR Denver Robb Honda 250cc + 39.308 105.969 mph 8 NIR Mark Lunney Honda 250cc + 42.014 105.733 mph 9 IRL Emlyn Hughes Honda 250cc + 42.504 105.961 mph 10 ENG Neil Richardson Yamaha 250cc + 44.434 105.531 mph Fastest Lap: Michael Dunlop, 4'51.975 on lap 4 (110.549 mph; 177.911 km/h) Race 2; 1000cc Superbike Race final standings Saturday 17 May 2008 *5 laps – 44.690 miles Rank Rider Team Time Speed 1 ENG Michael Rutter Ducati 21' 52.169 122.609 mph 2 ENG Guy Martin Honda + 0.810 122.534 mph 3 ENG John McGuinness Honda + 0.956 122.510 mph 4 ENG Steve Plater Yamaha YZF-R + 1.192 121.658 mph 5 ENG Gary Johnson Honda + 10.257 120.979 mph 6 NZL Bruce Anstey Suzuki GSX-R1000 + 17.682 120.979 mph 7 ENG Ian Hutchinson Yamaha + 17.970 120.953 mph 8 NIR Ryan Farquhar Kawasaki ZX-10R + 18.386 120.915 mph 9 NIR Denver Robb Suzuki + 27.118 120.127 mph 10 SCO Keith Amor Honda + 41.841 118.820 mph Fastest Lap: Michael Rutter, 4'20.729 on lap 5 (123.798 mph; 199.234 km/h) Race 3; Supersport Race final standings Saturday 17 May 2008 5 laps – 44.690 miles Rank Rider Team Time Gap 1 ENG Steve Plater Yamaha YZF-R6 22'46.632 2 NIR Alastair Seeley Yamaha 22'49.619 + 2.987 3 WAL Ian Lougher Yamaha 22'50.366 + 3.734 4 ENG Ian Hutchinson Yamaha 22'50.813 + 4.181 5 NIR Ryan Farquhar Kawasaki 22'51.092 + 4.460 6 SCO Keith Amor Honda 22'51.288 + 4.656 7 ENG Guy Martin Honda 22'51.866 + 5.234 8 ENG Gary Johnson Honda 22'52.396 + 5.764 9 ENG John McGuinness Honda 22'54.799 + 8.167 10 Isle of Man Conor Cummins Yamaha 22'55.173 + 8.541 Fastest Lap and New Lap Record: Steve Plater, 4'30.792 on lap 5 (119.197 mph; 191.829 km/h) Race 4; 125cc Race final standings Saturday 17 May 2008 4 laps – 35.724 miles Rank Rider Team Time Gap 1 ENG Michael Wilcox Honda 21'10.496 2 ENG Chris Palmer Honda 21'10.673 + 0.177 3 ENG James Ford Honda 21'20.006 + 9.510 4 NIR Mark Lunney Honda 21'23.032 + 12.536 5 IRL Mark Curtin Honda 21'23.596 + 13.100 6 NIR Graham Wilson Honda 21'24.652 + 14.156 7 NED Stephan Savelkouls Honda 21'47.464 + 36.968 8 NIR David Ferguson Honda 21'50.154 + 39.658 9 NIR Tim Stott Honda 21'50.437 + 39.941 10 NIR Nigel Moore Honda 21'50.668 + 40.172 Fastest Lap: Chris Palmer, 5'16.672 on lap 4 (101.928 mph; 164.037 km/h) Race 5; 400cc Race final standings Saturday 17 May 2008 4 laps – 35.724 miles Rank Rider Team Time Gap 1 ENG Oliver Linsdell Yamaha 20'38.949 2 NZL Paul Dobbs Yamaha 21'03.441 + 24.492 3 SCO Les Shand Kawasaki 21'04.150 + 25.201 4 NIR Joe Phillips Kawasaki 21'04.319 + 25.370 5 ENG John Barton Kawasaki 21'05.398 + 26.449 6 NIR Alan Brown Suzuki 21'10.235 + 31.286 7 Isle of Man David Madsen-Mygdal Honda 21'13.993 + 35.044 8 IRL Michael Sweeney Honda 21'17.834 + 38.885 9 NIR Coyles Wright Suzuki 21'29.098 + 50.149 10 ENG Ian Whitlow Suzuki 21'55.007 + 1'16.058 Fastest Lap and New Lap Record: Oliver Linsdell, 5'06.838 on lap 3 (105.194 mph; 169.293 km/h) Race 6; 1000cc Superstock Race final standings Saturday 17 May 2008 5 laps – 44.690 miles Rank Rider Team Time Gap 1 NIR Alastair Seeley Yamaha 22'08.828 2 NZL Bruce Anstey Suzuki 22'09.363 + 0.535 3 AUS Cameron Donald Suzuki 22'09.583 + 0.755 4 ENG Guy Martin Honda 22'10.136 + 1.308 5 SCO Keith Amor Honda 22'10.269 + 1.441 6 NIR Ryan Farquhar Kawasaki 22'11.671 + 2.843 7 ENG Gary Johnson Honda 22'16.745 + 7.917 8 Isle of Man Conor Cummins Yamaha 22'23.426 + 14.598 9 ENG Rob Frost Yamaha 22'29.852 + 21.024 10 Scotland Les Shand Yamaha 22'30.633 + 21.805 Fastest Lap and New Lap Record: Guy Martin, 4'24.682 on lap 3 (121.949 mph; 196.258 km/h) Race 7; North West 200 Superbike Race Saturday 17 May 2008 6 laps – 53.656 miles Rank Rider Team Time Gap 1 ENG Steve PlaterYamaha 26'17.157 2 AUS Cameron Donald Suzuki 26'17.744 + 0.587 3 ENG Michael Rutter Ducati 26'18.495 + 1.338 4 NZL Bruce Anstey Suzuki 26'18.692 + 1.535 5 ENG John McGuinness Honda 26'18.915 + 1.758 6 ENG Gary Johnson Honda 26'20.874 + 3.717 7 SCO Keith Amor Honda 26'30.113 + 12.956 8 ENG Ian Hutchinson Yamaha 26'31.163 + 14.006 9 NIR Ryan Farquhar Kawasaki 26'50.132 + 32.975 10 NIR Denver Robb Suzuki 26'51.260 + 34.103 Fastest Lap: John McGuinness (lap 5) and Steve Plater (lap 6), 4'21.686 (123.345 mph; 198.505 km/h) Race 8; Supersport Race Saturday 17 May 2008 5 laps – 44.690 miles Rank Rider Team Time Gap 1 ENG Steve Plater Yamaha 22'41.258 2 NIR Alastair Seeley Yamaha 22'41.391 + 0.133 3 WAL Ian Lougher Yamaha 22'43.218 + 1.960 4 ENG Steve Brogan Honda 22'46.694 + 5.436 5 SCO Keith Amor Honda 22'46.795 + 5.537 6 ENG Gary Johnson Honda 23'02.936 + 21.678 7 AUS Cameron Donald Suzuki 23'03.409 + 22.151 8 ENG John McGuinness Honda 23'06.462 + 25.204 9 SCO Les Shand Suzuki 23'28.676 + 47.418 10 ENG James McBride Yamaha 23'32.998 + 51.740 Fastest Lap: Keith Amor, 4'31.745 on lap 4 (118.779 mph; 191.156 km/h) External links https://web.archive.org/web/20090524013820/http://www.northwest200.org:80/default.aspx Map of "The Triangle" #2008 Category:2008 in British motorsport Category:2008 in Northern Ireland sport North Category:May 2008 sports events in the United Kingdom