North West 200: First qualifying session moved from Tuesday to Wednesday for 2024

The start of a Superstock race at the 2023 North West 200

The first qualifying session for the 2024 North West 200 will run on the Wednesday (8 May) rather than its traditional Tuesday slot.

The move has been necessitated by a British Superbike round taking place at Oulton Park from 4-6 May.

NW200 Event Director Mervyn Whyte says the switch has received a favourable response from teams and riders.

"We spent some time at Thruxton talking to the main teams and riders and everyone was so positive," said Whyte.

"It reduces the time for the teams and maybe a bit of spend for the teams, which is positive for them."

The early-season Oulton Park BSB round is regularly staged over the May Day holiday weekend, with the main race day this year being Monday 6 May.

This means the arrival in Northern Ireland of those teams and riders who compete in both BSB and the North West will be delayed until Tuesday, 7 May.

In an additional change to the qualifying sessions, the Superbikes will be the first out on track on both Wednesday [after the newcomers session] and Thursday morning and will be allocated one hour slots on both days.

Previously, the Superbikes were the last bikes out in the practice sessions and often had their track time curtailed by delays in previous sessions for the other classes.

The change for the 2024 event has been introduced at the request of the teams who say the powerful superbike machinery requires more set up time than other classes.

The big bikes will have an extra race on the programme this year, with that event opening the race programme on Thursday evening. They will be followed by the Supersports and Superstocks.

Saturday's scheduled six-race programme will feature two Superbike runs, two Supertwins outings and one race each for the Supersports and Superstocks.

"The additional Superbike race on the Thursday evening has gone down really well, everyone is enthused by what we are doing. It has been requested for a number of years," said Whyte.

Glenn Irwin has won the last eight North West Superbike races in a row and sits one behind the record of nine successes for that class jointly held by the late Joey Dunlop and Michael Rutter.

The new qualifying and race schedules for the 2024 NW200 on Wednesday and Thursday, May 8-9 are -

Wednesday, 8 May - Qualifying

Newcomers; Superbikes; Supertwins; Supersport; Superstock

Thursday, May 9 - Qualifying

Superbike; Supersport; Superstock; Supertwins

Thursday races - Superbike, Supersport, Superstock