Lintin impresses at rain affected North West 200

Lincolnshire’s Ivan Lintin produced three high-class performances at a rain-affected International North West 200 road race meeting last week, securing a best finish of fourth in Thursday’s Supertwins race aboard the McKinstry Racing Kawasaki. The Bardney rider also impressed greatly on the Taylor Lindsey Kawasaki in the two Supersport 600cc races to further enhance his road racing credentials.

Having just his second outing (and first since 2008) around the 8.9-mile circuit linking the towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush, Lintin soon got dialled back into the high-speed course and qualified strongly before lining up for two races on Thursday evening. With wet, but drying, conditions the 5-lap Supersport event was the first to come to the line and a solid start on the Taylor Lindsey Kawasaki saw Ivan maintain his starting position. Enjoying a good battle with leading riders Cameron Donald, William Dunlop, Conor Cummins and Simon Andrews, he was able to get the better of all bar the last-named for a very strong 14th at the chequered flag.

That set him up nicely for the following 4-lap Supertwins event that saw the rain stop and the sun begin to break through. Part of a four-man group that were battling for the final podium spot, Ivan was in contention throughout and by the final lap, he’d managed to move up to fourth and be in with a great chance of his first International rostrum. He had to give best in the end to former Grand Prix winner Jeremy McWilliams, James Hillier and Jamie Hamilton but fourth, just 3.1s adrift of the race victor, was an excellent finish.

Sadly, torrential rain hit the Causeway Coast on Saturday meaning all but one race was cancelled and the Supersport race had only completed two laps when proceedings were called to a halt. Despite the terrible weather, Ivan again acquitted himself well with a 19th place finish.

Speaking afterwards, Ivan commented: “It’s a real shame the weather ruined everything on Saturday but there was simply no way it could’ve continued, conditions were dreadful. I could barely see a thing in the Supersport race and there was hardly any grip at all so I just concentrated on bringing the bike home. Thursday’s race went well though and we’ve found a good base setting with the bike, ironing out a few little issues along the way so it’s still been a valuable week. There was some tough competition out there and if you look at the riders who finished just in front of me, and some of those behind, I was able to run with some extremely good company.”

“In the Supertwins race, the wind had changed direction on the run from Station to University between practice and the race so I was under-geared. The bike was on the rev-limiter so although I was able to run the pace of the leading trio, I couldn’t get close enough to pass. Had it not been for that, I think I could’ve have made it on to the podium but whilst it’s a bit disappointing to have missed out, I was the third highest finisher of all the TT competitors so it bodes well."

“It would have been nice to have got out there on Saturday and tried again for the podium but overall it’s been a good week so a big thanks to all my sponsors especially Taylor Lindsey Racing, McKinstry Racing, B and C Express and The Other Bike Shop. I’m happy with the bikes so it puts us in a strong position heading to the Island.”