FHO Racing withdraw from the remainder of North West 200

Peter Hickman & Josh Brookes were excluded from racing in Thursday's Superstock race over their BMW's carbon wheels.

Both FHO Racing machines passed Scrutineering and were permitted to qualify their BMW M1000RR machines on Tuesday and Thursday but, as the Superstock grid were lining up for their sighting lap. Josh Brookes told BBC Sport they were prevented from racing due to their bikes having carbon wheels, which are not permitted in the MCUI regulations. But the regulations for the Isle of Man TT races allow the use of carbon wheels in the Superstock class, as the 2023 BMW M1000RR comes standard with the carbon wheels, the same regulations apply in the National Superstock Championship.

FHO Racing subsequently pulled out of the remainder of the race meeting.

Those regulations, which are implemented by the MCUI Stewards, were approved by the sport's governing body back in January 2023 and published on the North West 200's website.

The team then released a statement expressing “no confidence in the application of the Superstock technical regulations.” They also pointed out that they used the carbon wheels at the 2019 & 2022 meetings, Peter Hickman won the first Superstock race in 2019.

• The Full FHO Racing statement can be read here

The North West 200 released a statement saying "We deeply regret the FHO Racing BMW team's decision to withdraw from the event tonight as a result of this action, a sentiment we know will be shared by all NW200 race fans.”

This techincal infringement is the latest in a number of regulation issues at the event, most noticeably in 2022 as Richard Cooper lost both of his Supertwin victories after his KMR Kawasaki was found to be running an illegal fairing.

FHO Racing are now looking forward to getting back out on the roads in a few weeks' time at the Isle of Man TT Races.