The 2023 North West 200 proved a dominant weekend for METZELER, with the tyre brand taking six wins and a further 11 podiums, with Glenn Irwin securing his eighth consecutive win Superbike win while Alastair Seeley and Richard Cooper take victory in the Superstock and Supertwin classes.

 

13th May 2023 – The high-speed North West 200 once again proved a successful weekend for METZELER, with six victories from RACETEC™ RR Slick and road-legal RACETEC™ RR equipped riders across the Superbike, Superstock and Supertwin classes. The results underline the success of the METZELER Road Race programme in the build up to the prestigious Isle of Man TT, where the tyre manufacturer will be the Official Tyre Partner.  

 

With the 2023 event only being confirmed several weeks back, it proved a fantastic week of racing at the North West 200, with the 8.9-mile circuit providing incredible racing that kept the thousands of fans trackside and those at home gripped to the edge of their seats. For the first time this year, the Superstock and Supersport classes were allowed to utilise RACETEC™ RR Slick tyres, while the Supertwins remained on the road-legal RACETEC™ RR treaded option. 

 

The opening day of practice on Tuesday saw mixed weather, but qualifying on Thursday was graced with good weather, and METZELER riders secured a cleansweep of pole positions as Richard Cooper topped the Supertwin session while Alastair Seeley completed a hat-trick in the Superbike, Superstock and Supertwin classes. 

 

With the good weather continuing into Thursday evening, the opening Supersport race proved a thriller that came down to the wire as six riders battled it out at the front throughout the six laps. Despite a fast charge on the final lap, Seeley narrowly missed out on victory by just 0.1s while fellow METZELER rider Cooper completed the podium in third. 

 

Eager to make amends in the Superstock race, Seeley proved to be in a class of his own as he cruised away at the front to take the win, his 28th overall North West 200 victory, by over ten seconds. To cement a dominant race, Seeley also set a new lap record of 4:19.525s, just one second outside the overall Superbike lap record. With fading light, the Supertwin race was postponed to Saturday, setting up an exciting six-race schedule. 

 

The main race day saw one of the busiest crowds in recent memory, with tens of thousands of fans lining the hedges and roads that make up the iconic ‘Triangle’ circuit. It was the perfect start for METZELER, with Cooper easily controlling the opening Supertwin race, while Paul Jordan and Adam McLean took second and third to make it a lockout of RACETEC™ RR riders. 

 

Next up was the second Supersport race of the week, and it was a repeat of the opener with a race-long battle that saw the lead change multiple times throughout. Disaster would strike Seeley as he battled for the win, running on at the chicane on the penultimate lap, forcing him out of the battle for the win. Despite also running on, on the opening lap, Cooper was eventually able to recover to second place, finishing less than 0.3s behind the victor. 

 

Having won the last six Superbike races, all eyes were on Glenn Irwin ahead of the first of the blue-riband Superbike races, and the Beer Monster Ducati rider did not disappoint his home crowd. It looked set to be a grandstand finish as the pack diced at the front, but a red flag saw the race come to a premature finish, giving Irwin his seventh consecutive Superbike victory while fellow METZELER rider Dean Harrison secured third.

 

In a repeat of the first race, Cooper eased his way to victory in the second of the Supertwin races, setting a new lap record in the process while Jeremy McWilliams and Adam McLean ensured it was another 100% METZELER podium. It was a similar story in the second of the Superstock races, as Seeley doubled up on victories while Harrison secured his second podium of the week in third. 

 

Rounding out the 2023 event, as always, was the feature Superbike race. With the initial running red flagged, the restart saw four riders fighting for victory as they traded places throughout the opening three laps. Just as race one victor Irwin began to creep away at the front, a second red flag on lap four saw the result declared, giving the Northern Irishman an unprecedented eighth consecutive Superbike win. Capping off a fantastic event for METZELER, joining Irwin on the feature race podium was Seeley in second and Harrison in third. 

 

Securing 17 podium positions from a potential 24 underlines METZELER’s Road Race programme, with attention now turning toward the legendary Isle of Man TT, where for the first time in the history of the prestigious event, the tyre manufacturer will be the Official Tyre Partner. 

 

Speaking after the event, METZELER UK Racing Manager Jason Griffiths added, “The North West 200 is an incredibly challenging event and we’re very satisfied with the continued performance & reliability of the Metzeler range across the week. Today we enjoyed fantastic weather, and a huge crowd enjoyed some dramatic racing. Glenn Irwin continued his domination of the Superbike class and had just stamped his authority on the feature race when the red flag came out. Alastair Seeley is synonymous with the Metzeler brand and delivered for us once again, Thursday’s Superstock win was indeed classic Seeley. Richard Cooper’s double provided the icing on the cake on a memorable event for Metzeler. Thanks to all the riders who chose to ride with Metzeler this week.” 

 

 

The 2023 North West 200 results with METZELER riders in bold.

Supersport Race One - Thursday

1. Davey Todd

2. Alastair Seeley (METZELER)

3. Richard Cooper (METZELER)

 

Superstock Race One - Thursday

1. Alastair Seeley (METZELER)

2. Davey Todd

3. Michael Dunlop

 

Supertwin Race One - Saturday

1. Richard Cooper (METZELER)

2. Paul Jordan (METZELER)

3. Adam McLean (METZELER)