North West 200: Six reasons to look forward to the 90th anniversary event

Peter Hickman, Dean Harrison, James Hillier, Ian Hutchinson… you see where I’m going with this one.

Hickman, the 2018 Senior TT winner, Isle of Man Mountain Course lap record holder and twice British Superbike series top-six finisher, broke his North West wins duck in the Superstock category last year and should be a contender in every class he competes in again this year with Smith’s Racing.

Harrison is beginning his fourth season with the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki team and despite being on the podium three times over the Triangle and seriously ‘upping his game’ last season, he has yet to uncork the victor’s champagne.

Hillier makes it an incredible 11 years with his Bournemouth Kawasaki outfit and with four second places and two thirds to his name at the event so far, the top step of the podium may be a natural progression for the Hampshire man.

Hutchinson’s efforts were hampered last year as he continued his recovery from injury and he did well just to be on the grid at all. Could a comeback win against the odds be on the cards for the ‘Bingley Bullet’? He’s done it before more than once…

If you’re a fan of the English riders, you’ll have Gary Johnson, Michael Rutter and Davey Todd to cheer for too. Fair enough, their surnames don’t begin with ‘H’ but we’ll sneak them into this section anyhow.