Conor Cummins was back on the International road racing programme last Saturday when he contested the North West 200 road races and although the majority of the races were cancelled, the Manxman did more than enough to show he's getting ever closer to his best. Riding the McAdoo Racing Kawasaki, Conor enjoyed an excellent ride into 10th place in the Supersport 600cc race in what can only be described as challenging conditions. With three rounds of the National Superstock 1000cc Championship under his belt, the return to the roads represented a new challenge for Conor on his comeback but in his usual, unflustered manner, he went about his business diligently through practice. Tuesday evening saw patchy conditions around the 8.9-mile circuit so Conor took no risks but with conditions a lot more favourable on Thursday, he was able to increase his pace significantly. Indeed, combined qualifying times placed Conor 13th (Supersport), 18th (Superbike) and 19th (Superstock), comfortably in the first wave for each class. Race day dawned wet and windy but the Supersport 600cc race started proceedings and a good opening lap saw Conor maintain his starting place of 13th as he battled on the roads with Guy Martin, Lee Johnston and Luis Carreira. A lap later, Conor was up to 10th and the quartet had become a trio with Carreira dropping back slightly. For the remainder of the race, Conor sat right in the wheeltracks of Martin and Johnston and there was never more than three quarters of a second betwen the three riders, Martin and Johnston swapping places regularly. There was little opportunity for Conor to make a pass but he was happy to cross the line in a good 10th place, only 0.408s behind 8th placed Martin at the end of the 5-lap race. Unfortunately, the combination of wind, rain and an oil spillage caused the cancellation of the remainder of the meeting. Speaking later, a satisfied Conor said; "I'm happy enough with that finish and the whole week has gone well for me. Obviously, the weather made it a bit tricky in practice and it was also my first time out on the McAdoo bikes so I just kept it safe and steady although I was quite surprised to be best placed on the Supersport machine as that's not really my best class. All three bikes were working well though and I was just looking forward to getting some solid rides under my belt. Sadly, all the problems on race day put paid to that but in the race I did have, I was really pleased with the outcome and it was good to get back into the groove of racing on the roads again." "Guy and Lee were swapping places out there quite a bit so I didn't want to get caught up in any of that and kept a watching brief behind them. I felt really comfortable and tenth first time back on the roads was very pleasing. to say the least. The TT will, naturally, be a lot tougher but everything's going in the right way and I'll look forward to having another good, solid meeting there. There's no pressure or expectations so I'll just go and do my own thing and see where I end up." ENDS