Seeley eyes NW200 clean sweep

The Carrick rider has become the one with the target on his back as far as the opposition is concerned after setting new lap records in both the supersport and superbike classes last year, as he did the double.

His win in the final superbike race in 2010 at last gave the local fans the chance to celebrate after a 12-year famine, with that man McCallen being the last superbike winner, on a 750 Honda.

This year, Seeley is in a great position to add to his four-race tally and he took time out before leaving for the Croft BSB meeting to talk to the Times about the coming 2011 NW200.

Alastair has had a good start to his British supersport season, with a win and two seconds in the opening two rounds followed by a fifth and fourth at Croft to maintain his top three in the championship, but how does the Relentless Suzuki star prepare for the biggest outdoor sporting event in Ireland?

“Well, first of all I need to have a steady run at Croft and come to the NW200 fit and healthy, like I did last year,” he said.

“We tested the bikes at Kirkistown recently and everything went well. We did very good lap times and were one-and-a-half seconds below the lap record on the superbike, under the superbike lap record on the superstock bike and just a shade off the supersport lap record with only five laps on the bike. It was a very good and productive test and we are arriving at the NW with all three bikes ready to go.”

Seeley goes in all five races, but can he make it a clean sweep? “Five is a big ask and you need a lot of luck on your side,” he replied.

Read the full story in this week’s Carrick Times