North West 200: Richard Cooper has wins reinstated after 18 months

Richard Cooper was disqualified after taking the chequered flag in the two Supertwin races at the 2022 North West 200

Richard Cooper has been reinstated as the winner of the two Supertwin races at the 2022 North West 200 after an 18-month appeal process.

England's Cooper took the chequered flag in both races but a protest was lodged against a bracket on his Kawasaki bike.

He was then excluded from the results and Pierre-Yves Bian and Joe Loughlin were declared winners.

The appeal process has taken 18 months but Cooper's wins have been reinstated.

The English rider will receive prize money for the two wins while a statement from the Motorcycle Union of Ireland (MCUI) Ulster Centre said that lap or race records would also be reinstated.

Cooper's pleas were heard on Wednesday 1 November and a statement from the MCUI Ulster Centre said that it had "unfortunately failed to hold an appeal in a timely manner".

"All parties concerned shall be bound by the decision given, subject only to appeal as provided in the general competition rules, and shall thereby renounce any right to have recourse to any arbitration, civil court or other provincial not provided for in the general competition rules," added the MCUI Ulster Centre statement.

The protest in May 2022 was lodged against a bracket on Cooper's Kawasaki bike before the second race on the final Saturday race day, though he was eventually allowed to take part with the protest to be fully reviewed after the race.

However, hours after racing had finished for the day, it was announced that he had been disqualified and stripped of his two race victories.

Speaking soon after the protest had been lodged, Ryan Farquhar, owner of 40-year-old Cooper's KMR Kawasaki, strongly criticised the disqualifications.

"There's been a protest on a technicality over a bracket," he said.

"They told us we were disqualified but I fought my corner because you're allowed to change tour brackets. We put an appeal in so that's where we're at, at the minute.

"If it was that big an issue there was no way Richard should have been out there, the bike has gone through scrutiny all week. There's no performance gain with it whatsoever so I think if they do disqualify us through that it'll just be sour grapes."

Cooper returned to the road race in 2023 and dominated both Supertwin races, and the retrospective victories from the previous year take his tally of victories to four.