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Overseas raider Martin Jessopp’s staggeringly fast 208mph top speed record at the Relentless International North West 200 wasn’t enough to topple race favourite Alastair Seeley.
Ducati star Jessopp - who is competing in the World Supersport Championship this season - smashed Scotsman Stuart Easton’s previous best speed of 204mph on the frighteningly fast blast from Station Corner to University, but it was Tyco Suzuki hero Seeley who led the way in the premier Superbike class during the opening qualifying session.
The Carrick rider was over three seconds faster than Honda TT Legends rider and Isle of Man master John McGuinness, with another Northern Ireland star, William Dunlop, third on Co Londonderry team boss Wilson Craig’s Honda Fireblade.
Jessopp’s mind-boggling feat created a massive buzz around the 8.9-mile circuit on a cold and blustery North Coast yesterday, but the Yeovil man could only finish fifth on the time-sheets behind Seeley’s Tyco Suzuki team-mate and serial tea drinker Guy Martin.
Incredibly, a nonplussed Jessopp said he could have gone ever faster.
“I was out on my own when I did it and if I’d been able to slipstream it would’ve been even faster,” said the Macau Grand Prix runner-up, who feels 212mph isn’t an impossibility.
“It felt like it was going to pull my arms out of my shoulders.”
