MOTORCYCLING: Bardney's Lintin records double win at North West 200

He completed his qualifying in third place and began his campaign from the front row on Thursday evening in Northern Ireland.

But things did not go smoothly for the Bardney rider as the race had to be stopped to allow the fire fighters to get to a house where the hedge had caught fire. After a lengthy delay the race was restarted and Ivan was running in a close fourth place on the first lap and the four pulled away from the following group of riders.

The two leaders crashed heavily at Black Hill on lap two, leaving Ivan and James Hillier in the clear. Ivan managed to get ahead and was leading as they crossed the line to start the third lap. Unfortunately, the red flag brought the race to an untimely end to allow the medics to attend to the two fallers and a result was declared, giving Ivan the first win at the North West 200.

In Saturday’s Supersport race, Ivan was unlucky to have a stone fly up on the warm-up lap and put a hole in the radiator, so he was unable to take his place on the grid for the start.

Starting Saturday’s Supertwin race from pole position, Ivan got the hole shot and flew away to establish a good lead. He seemed to have the measure of the little bike, as by the time he completed the second lap he was 3.2sec ahead of his nearest rival.

On lap three, he extended his lead to more than five seconds and was well in command of the race. Unfortunately the race was red flagged for a bad crash again at the Black Hill and the result was called, giving Ivan his second win of the weekend plus the bonus of setting a new lap record of 4min 55.434sec at 93.04mph.

Ivan said: “I am really pleased with both wins and especially with the lap record, I didn’t know whether we would get that with the wind. I had a plan in my head to get my head down and try to break everybody.

“I got caught by Lee two years ago at Juniper Hill chicane so I had it in my head I didn’t need to be leading until after Juniper this time. We have been fortunate enough to get three days in the sun and it’s been good for the crowd, good for us and the set-up. It would have been nice to take the chequered flag but this was more of a genuine win than Thursday night’s race certainly.

“I am just going to focus on the TT now, I am looking forward to it. The team have built me a brilliant twin and I don’t seem to go bad on it. We go nearly as quick as the 600 and we are really looking forward to getting some good miles in.”

Sadly, after the presentation it was announced that the rider involved in the accident lost his life and the rest of the meeting was abandoned.