Davey Todd and Alastair Seeley had a first and second place apiece on the first evening of racing at the North West 200 on Thursday.

The pair were only one tenth of a second apart in the opening Supersport race that Todd narrowly edged on the Milenco by Padgett’s Motorcycles Honda.

Seeley was riding the Powertoolmate Ducati Panigale twin, setting a new lap record of 118.036mph for the class.

Michael Dunlop was fourth, sandwiched by the BPE by Russell Racing Yamaha pairing of Richard Cooper and Dean Harrison.

Peter Hickman was sixth on his K2 Trooper Triumph 765, followed by the Northern Ireland duo of Adam McLean and Paul Jordan, the latter on the Castletown-based PreZ Racing by Prosper2 R6.

Ramsey’s Conor Cummins was 10th, between France’s Pierre Yves Bian and former MotoGP rider Jeremy McWilliams, now aged 59.

The second and only other Manx finisher was Jamie Williams in 18th spot on the JLG/NCE Racing Yamaha.

Todd grabbed the early lead in the Superstock race, but Seeley’s Synetic BMW Motorrad bike had the legs on his Fireblade and he steadily pulled clear after overtaking him towards the end of the first lap.

His lead was 10.3 seconds when the race was red flagged following Nathan Harrison’s crash at Dhu Varren (exiting Portrush) on lap five. 

Dunlop had been ahead of Todd, but the result was declared on the last completed sector and that gave it to the Northumbrian by three tenths of a second, with Dean Harrison a clear fourth on the DAO Racing Kawasaki.

Michael Rutter, James Hillier and the Honda Racing duo of Nathan Harrison and John McGuinness had been in a close four-way tussle for fifth place when Harrison went down, breaking a collarbone and wrist (see separate story).

With Conor Cummins suffering problems with his Padgett’s Honda, and eventually retiring at the end of lap two, Mikey Evans was the leading Isle of Man rider in a fine 10th place on his privately entered 1000cc Suzuki, having qualified in the first wave

Anthony Redmond of Ballaugh was 25th on his Reds Garage BMW.

Seeley set a new lap record for the Superstock class at 124.427mph on lap three.

The Supertwin race was postponed because of the shortage of light and road closure time following the red flag incident.

SATURDAY SCHEDULE

The times for Saturday's schedule have yet to be confirmed as organisers attempt to fit in the aforementioned postponed Supertwin race, but the running order is as follows:

Roads will close at 9.15pm before the six-lap Supersport race gets underway at approximately 10am.

This will be followed by the six-lap Superbike race, then the Supertwin four-lapper, the Superstock over six laps and the second Superbike race also over six laps.

Reports in Tuesday's Isle of Man Examiner, on sale Tuesday morning.