There were wins for Peter Hickman, Lee Johnston and Italy’s Stefano Bonetti on the opening evening of racing at the North West 200 on Thursday.

In good conditions, Yamaha-mounted Johntson won the opening Supersport race by 0.73 of a second from Dean Harrison, with James Hillier another 1.6s down in third.

Johntson led Alastair Seeley onto the coast road for the final time, only for the latter to come off when attempting a winning move at Juniper Hill chicane.

Michael Dunlop finished fourth on the leading Honda, with Jamie Coward going well on Castletown man John Preston’s Yamaha to finish sixth ahead of Ian Hutchinson, Davey Todd and Gary Johnson.

One of the rides of the night came from young Manxman Nathan Harrison who finished 13th in his debut race on the course riding Chris Preston’s GSXR600 - the highest-placed Suzuki in the entire field. He averaged 111.755mph to finish behind Horst Saiger.

Such was the pace at the front that Johnston lapped all of the riders up to and including Michael Sweeney in ninth place.

Craig Neve, Paul Jordan, Derek McGee, Conor Cummins and Peter Hickman were all non-finishers, the latter two with holed radiators on their bikes.

Cummins was a non-starter for the Superstock race, but Hickman dominated that on the new Smiths Racing BMW S1000RR that hadn’t turned a wheel before Tuesday’s first qualifying session.

Glenn Irwin had led the charge to York Hairpin on lap one, but Hickman drafted past on the flat-out run the university and was never headed again.

Hickman crossed the finish line almost two seconds ahead of Irwin with Dunlop third on his own BMW.

Hillier, Johnston and newcomer to the North-West Richard Cooper filled out the top six, but again Jamie Coward had a good run to finish seventh.

Dean Harrison, Hutchinson, Todd and Michael Rutter were among the DNFs.

A delighted Stefano Bonetti won the Supertwin race by a fraction over half-a-second on the VAS Paton from on-form Coward (KTS Kawasaki), fighting off a late challenge from the Yorkshireman who grabbed the lead at University on the final lap.

Rutter finished seven seconds adrift on the first of Ryan Farquhar’s bikes after former GP rider Jeremy McWilliams came off his KMR at Mather’s Cross chicane when leading on lap two.

Roads close at 9.15am Saturday for a full day’s racing, starting with the second Supersport event, then the second Superbike race, Supertwin, Superstock and the final Superbike event.

A round-up of the action in Tuesday’s Isle of Man Examiner.