NW200: Hillier dominates to maiden North West 200 victory

James Hillier has controlled from the front to secure his maiden victory at the North West 200 in the Superstock race on the Quattro Plant Kawasaki as newcomer Richard Cooper secured a stunning second place.

Hillier, who used his Superstock Kawasaki ZX-10RR in the earlier Superbike race, bolted clear at the front and appeared to pick the perfect Metzeler tyre combination running a wet front and intermediate rear to pull out a lead almost at will which grew to 19 seconds at the end of Lap 3.

With a healthy advantage over the chasing pack, which saw a hotly-contested battle for the final podium spots between Cooper, Davey Todd and Dean Harrison, Hillier controlled his pace over the final two laps to take his first-ever win at the NW200.

Cooper got the better of Todd for second place with a last-corner overtake at Juniper chicane for a starring result for the debutant at the NW200 on the Buildbase Suzuki.

With Todd taking third place on the Penz13.com BMW, Harrison faded late on to fourth place on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki.

Lukas Maurer also impressed on the L78 by Heider Motorsport Kawasaki with fifth place ahead of Michael Rutter on the Bathams BMW and Matthew Rees on the Rees Kawasaki as Superbike race-winner Glenn Irwin dropped from fourth to eight place over the final lap for Quattro Plant Kawasaki.

Horst Saiger (Saiger Racing Yamaha) and Chris Green (Hollins Strategic Land/Go Green BMW) rounded out the top 10.

Peter Hickman, Michael Dunlop and Ian Hutchinson all retired after the opening lap, while Gary Johnson, Lee Johnston, David Johnson and Conor Cummins all didn’t start the race.