You can feel the ground shaking underneath you as the first of these mighty Superbikes blast past us on their opening lap of this Superbike session.

It promises to be a frantic hour of action and we expect some high speeds despite the threat of those lingering damp patches still slightly slowing the riders down on their exotic machines.

Lee Johnston
Five-time winner at the NW200

The Glenn Irwin who has turned up this year is a lot more confident than the one that turned up last year and it's showing in his riding.

Andy Gray
BBC Sport NI at the North West 200

It's the clear view that everyone wants on the burst to Portrush.

Glenn Irwin was the man to beat yesterday, but Davey Todd pushed him all the way.

It's still damp in patches, but will we see the speeds of yesterday?

Image source, BBC Sport

Steve Parrish
BBC Sport NI commentator

Davey Todd on a proper Superbike and he will be fast out there.

It's perfect conditions, not too much wind out there.

The organisers are not hanging about today. The Superbikes are now roaring into action.

Stand by folks....

Michael Browne speaking to BBC Sport NI:

"That was good, we've made a few of changes to make it even better so hopefully this evening we can get even further up.

"You're in fourth, but you're still several seconds from the person in front and that might look good, but in reality you're back a lot so we have a little bit more to find in the bike."

Today's form guide by virtue of the Supertwins practice has thrown up a number of potential winners in the class.

Richard Cooper holds the record number of wins with four previous victories, while Jeremy McWilliams has three and has 10 podiums in the class to his name.

Peter Hickman is bang on form though if this morning's session is anything to go by and Mike Browne is another to look out for.

It promises to be some great racing when these Twins bikes take to the grid for their two races on Saturday.

Ian Hutchinson speaking to BBC Sport NI:

"I thought yesterday was going to be harder than it was and hopefully today goes forward.

"I'm in the position, yet again, coming back from being away from racing and I have to build back into it and that's not where I want to be."

Becca Keegan
BBC Sport NI at the North West 200

Image source, BBC Sport

The Superbikes are next up for Thursday practice and you can sense things are starting to heat up as the riders wait on the grid.

Can anyone challenge Glenn Irwin or Davey Todd for pole position?

Philip McCallen
11-time race winner at the NW200

The Kawasaki bike needs the most work done to it to make it competitive and it was showing it was competitive yesterday, but we'll see how it goes later today.

The Paton is a very strong bike and that new Aprilia is a beautiful piece of engineering and it has the right bits to make it a race bike.

1 Peter Hickman 110.846

2 Richard Cooper 109.793

3 Jeremy McWilliams 108.206

4 Mike Browne 108.064

5 Christian Elkin 107.035

6 Gary McCoy 105.689

Image source, Pacemaker Press

Philip McCallen
11-time race winner at the NW200

As this practice is going on, there is going to be more and more bikes there.

There will be at least six bikes in the last lap together and it's all going to be down to tactics, braking, the slipstream and who can take the lead and get over the line first.

As the session comes to a close Peter Hickman betters his earlier speed as he throws in a lap of 110.846mph, just around one second outside the lap record for the class.

'Hicky' is running a Yamaha for the second year in a row in this class, having taken a victory in the Twins at the TT last year.

Richard Cooper sits second on 109.793, with McWilliams third at present at 108.206.

Andy Gray
BBC Sport NI at the North West 200

The riders are getting to grips with the track, which is constantly drying. That's an impressive time from Peter Hickman, who is taking the challenge to Richard Cooper.

Don't forget, the Supertwins will have a second session later when, all being well, conditions will be fully dry.

Michael Sweeney speaking to BBC Sport NI:

"It's a little bit slower than yesterday, there is a couple of damp spots out there.

"We have tried to make a couple changes to the bike as we know there is another qualifying session later on. It should be fully dry, but the conditions aren't perfect at the minute."

This class used to be dominated by Kawasakis and have won 17 of the 18 Supertwins races staged at the North West but things have changed and there are four different manufacturers in the first four positions on the leaderboard at the moment.

Yamaha, Kawasaki, Paton and Aprilia are all represented in the upper echelons.

Who will come out on top on Saturday?

Jeremy McWilliams speaking to BBC Sport NI:

"Patchy, not perfect but handy enough.

"The bike is back to how I wanted it to feel and feels like it did last year. Feels more planted and we made some changes yesterday. I think we are in a good position.

"You're always relaxed if you're fastest, but that isn't going to last. The end of this session someone is going to go quicker, but that's not really important to me."

It's all happening now as first Richard Cooper goes top of the leaderboard at 108.342mph on his KMR Kawasaki and then Peter Hickman betters that with an average lap speed of 109.239 on his PHR Yamaha.

So it's Hickman in provisional pole as it stands, followed by Cooper, McWilliams, Browne and Michael Rutter.

Philip McCallen
11-time race winner at the NW200

The Dunlop name, Michael, is still up there. He has three third places yesterday, third quickest in the Superbikes, third in Superstock and third in Supersport so that's really good for him.

Let's not forget Davey Todd and Glenn Irwin are fresh from a race at Oulton Park and they are all ready to go while Michael had a week off really.

It's going to be interesting today.