James Hillier completed a brilliant week's racing at the International North West 200 road races on Saturday with a superb third place in the Superstock race. It was the debut podium for the Bournemouth Kawasaki Pr1mo Racing rider around the 8.9-mile public road course and he backed this up with more high class results, 6th and 8th, in the two Superbike races.
 
Saturday saw perfect weather around the course, which links the towns of Portstewart, Portrush and Coleraine and, hot on the heels of his two top six finishes on Thursday, James was eagerly looking forward to more of the same. The day got off to an inauspicious start though with retirement in the opening Supersport race but he bounced back well to take eighth in the first Superbike race. A good start saw James end the first lap in fifth place on the ZX-10R Kawasaki as he battled with Conor Cummins, Ian Hutchinson and Gary Johnson and although he had to give way to Cummins and a flying Cameron Donald, who ended the race in third, a top eight finish and near 120mph lap was a superb result.
 
However, his best race, and ride, of the day came in the following 6-lap Superstock race and at the end of the first lap, he led an International road race for the first time with Ryan Farquhar, Alastair Seeley and John McGuinness in hot pursuit. They were all having to give best though to Michael Rutter who had started in the second wave and it was he who led on corrected time. At half race distance, Rutter was pulling clear whilst James was embroiled in a frantic battle with Farquhar, Seeley and McGuinness. The latter was keeping a watching brief in fifth but the other three were exchanging places all the time and it all came down to a last lap sort out. James squeezed by Farquhar on the 200mph run into University Corner and he was able to hold him off for the remainder of the lap to claim a fantastic third place behind Rutter and Seeley.
 
The 600cc machine was unable to be repaired in time for the second Supersport race so that just left the feature Superbike race although James' race was compromised on the first lap when Gary Johnson, Cummins and Martin Jessopp crashed in front of him at the Mather's Cross chicane, dropping him down the order to 11th. A lap later though he was up to eighth and by lap four he was up to sixth having overtaken both Hutchinson and Farquhar. The time lost meant he was unable to climb any higher but the sixth place result meant that all five of his finishes for the week were inside the top eight.
 
Speaking afterwards, a delighted James said; "It's been a great week's racing for me and I'm over the moon to have taken my first podium today. The Superstock race was a lot of fun and although it was pretty close out there at times, I really enjoyed myself. I'd been struggling all week along the coast road but I learnt an awful lot racing with Alastair and Ryan so I was able to run with them. My bike was flying along the straights but the pair of them were very good on the brakes so it was a fight all the way until the end. Although Rutter wasn't with us on the road I was getting good signals and knew he was ahead of us on time and that I had to finish second in my group to get on the podium. I made the pass on Ryan stick on the last lap and with what I'd learnt I could keep him at bay along the coast road."
 
"The bike worked really well and it was good to back up the podium with two strong rides in the Superbike races. The crash in the second race held me up and I lost a lot of time so lost the tow to the group in front of me but I kept plugging away and sixth was a good result to end with. Unfortunately, we had a few problems with the 600cc machine but, apart from that, it's been a great week. The team have worked brilliantly and we've been on the pace in all classes and proved that we're a match for anyone else out there so I really can't wait now for the TT."
 
James now heads to the Isle of Man TT Races with practice getting underway next Saturday whilst team-mate Chris Walker will be back in British Superbike action at Snetterton on the same weekend.
 
Picture by Pacemaker Press International

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