North West 200

Originally intended to be held somewhere in the north west of Ireland and organised by the City of Derry & District Motor Club, the inaugural meeting was moved to the north coast but the name was never changed. Since 1964 the event has been organised by the Coleraine and District Motor Club. In 2010, daytime practice on the Thursday was introduced for the first time.

During the 2011 event on Saturday 21 May, significant delays occurred due to a hoax bomb alert. An extensive oil spill on the track then caused racing to be cancelled after just one race. In 2022 the event returned as the fonaCab & Nicholl Oils North West 200 after having been cancelled for the two previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 9 February 2023 the Motorcycle Union of Ireland announced the 2023 event was under threat following a significant increase in the insurance premium required. On 15 March 2023 the organisers confirmed that a sizeable donation from a prominent businessman and a revised insurance premium quote allowed the event to proceed.

The North West 200 was originally run over two hundred miles as a handicap race, before changing to its current format of several separate races, each running 4–6 laps during Saturday afternoon. Practice is held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings before the race. Unlike the Isle of Man TT races, which are run in a time-trial format, riders compete directly against each other. From 1990 until 2010 a 125 cc race was always included, and since 1992 the main race has been for Superbikes.

From 2012, all practice sessions take place during the day, and the racing programme was extended to include two races on the Thursday evening. All races are held over six laps, except for the newly introduced Supertwin event.

The street circuit is comprised almost entirely of public roads (A2, B185 and A29) and includes three speed-reducing chicanes. The route runs anti-clockwise and passes near private houses; safety measures include the removal of street signs and the use of hay bales to wrap lampposts and telegraph poles. The circuit is 8.970 mi (14.436 km) long, with the first lap of every race covering 8.834 mi (14.217 km). Elevation ranges from 6 to 75 metres (20 to 245 ft) above sea level.

The original start/finish line was near Magherabouy but moved to Portmore Road in Portstewart in 1930. In 1973 the Promenade at Portstewart was excluded from the route and the start/finish line moved to its current location between Juniper Hill and Millbank Avenue; this introduced Station Road (B185) and York Corner for the first time. Shell Hill Bridge was used for the last time in 1979. In 1980 a new link road from University Corner to Ballysally Roundabout was introduced. A chicane before the Juniper Hill corner was added in 1983, and in 1988 improvements to Mather's Cross and a start/finish chicane were made to reduce speeds around Primrose Hill and allow safer pitlane access. Mather's Cross was widened at the end of 2009 and a new purpose-built chicane was introduced there for 2010.

Jack Brett recorded the first 100 mph (160 km/h) lap on a Manx Norton 500 cc in 1957. Tom Herron set the fastest recorded lap at 127.63 mph (205.40 km/h) during the 1978 race. Peter Hickman holds the outright lap record for the circuit configuration with four chicanes, set during the 2022 Superbike event, at 124.799 mph (200.845 km/h). In 2004, Michael Rutter became the first rider to record a top speed in excess of 200 mph (320 km/h) on the course. At the 2012 event, Martin Jessopp set a new fastest speed trap time of 208 mph (335 km/h) on the approach to University Corner.

In 2022, Richard Cooper won two Supertwin races but was disqualified after scrutineers found a fairing bracket to be non-standard. The team's appeal was successful and in November 2023 Cooper was reinstated as winner of both legs with prize monies awarded retrospectively. In 2023, Faye Ho's FHO team riders Peter Hickman and Josh Brookes were disqualified immediately before the Superstock class for using standard carbon fibre road wheels on their BMW M1000 RRs, which regulations did not permit even though the team had used them in previous years and completed 2023 scrutineering and practice. As non-standard wheels were also not permitted, Faye Ho withdrew the team as a protest.

The first recorded death at the event was Norman Wainwright, killed in 1939.

1979 is known as "Black Saturday" — the darkest day in the event's history — after crashes claimed the lives of three riders: Tom Herron, Brian Hamilton and Frank Kennedy, who died months later from his injuries.

Robert Dunlop died on 15 May 2008 while practising in the 250 cc class. His bike seized on the approach to Mather's Cross at approximately 160 mph (260 km/h), throwing him over his handlebars. Fellow rider Darren Burns, immediately behind, collided with him and suffered a broken leg and suspected concussion. Robert Dunlop suffered severe chest injuries and died in hospital shortly afterwards.

Twenty-two-year-old Mark Young died during the 2009 event on 17 May 2009, in his first race at the North West 200. Mark Buckley, aged 35, suffered a fatal crash on Millbank Avenue outside Portstewart during the Superstock race on 19 May 2012 and died from his injuries. Simon Andrews was airlifted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast after suffering a high-speed accident at Metropole corner on 17 May 2014 and died on 19 May 2014, aged 31. Malachi Mitchell-Thomas, aged 20, died as a result of a crash on the third lap of the Supertwins race on 14 May 2016, having crashed his Burrows Engineering Kawasaki on the approach to Black Hill.

Alastair Seeley holds the record for most wins with 29. Robert Dunlop was the previous record holder with 15 wins. Michael Rutter won fourteen races. Joey Dunlop won thirteen races. Michael Dunlop and William Dunlop — both sons of Robert — have also won races at the North West 200.

The early years were dominated by British motorcycle manufacturers, particularly Norton. Honda claimed their first victory in 1964. In 2010 BMW scored their first victory, the first non-Japanese manufacturer to do so since 1997. Yamaha is the only manufacturer to have achieved a clean sweep, winning all five races in 1979.

The event is covered by BBC Northern Ireland, having previously been covered by UTV. All races are live on the BBC iPlayer with radio coverage on BBC Radio Ulster and live text commentary on the BBC Sport NI website. BBC NI also airs highlights programmes presented by Stephen Watson, usually on the Sunday and Monday nights after the event. BBC commentators include Steve Parrish and five-time winner in a single day Phillip McCallen. In 2022 BBC Sport NI extended its contract to provide coverage of the event until 2026.

The North West 200 features in Jester Interactive's PlayStation 2 title TT Superbikes: Real Road Racing Championship, released in May 2008, the sequel to their top-ten game TT Superbikes released in 2005. It is also featured in Milestone's Ride 2, Ride 3, Ride 4 and Ride 5 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.