John McGuinness suffers ‘leg break’ at NW200

Road racer John McGuinness has suffered a suspected broken leg during a Superbike practice session at the North West 200.

The Morecambe man crashed at Primrose Corner on Thursday afternoon and was taken by ambulance to Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital.

The 45-year-old Honda rider is a six-time winner at the Triangle circuit.

McGuinness and his team will be disappointed with the injury blow which will put paid to his involvement at both the rest of the NW200 and at the forthcoming Isle of Man TT.

The veteran competitor is also a 23-time winner on the island – the second most successful of all time, behind only the legendary Joey Dunlop.

Michael Rutter will start from pole position for Saturday’s Superbike race after the McGuinness crash cut qualifying short.

The 13-time winner had already clocked a personal best circuit lap of 122.345mph on his Bathams/SMT BMW before the red flags came out.

Rutter finished 1.1 seconds faster than Carrickfergus man Alastair Seeley on the Tyco BMW, with Glenn Irwin just half a second further back.

“I’m really happy with that lap today.” Rutter said.

“There was a lot more grip today because the track was a lot cleaner than on Tuesday, so I just went out and just tried to keep my head down and get a good lap in.

“When you do that around here, you never know what will happen.”

“I’m happy to be on the front row and I have no concerns for Saturday,” Seeley said.

“It will be all about getting a good launch off the line.”

Seeley also claimed pole in the Supersport session on his Gearlink Kawasaki, just 0.2 seconds faster than Fermanagh rider Lee Johnston and with Ballymoney’s Michael Dunlop third.

Meanwhile, Englishman Martin Jessopp topped the time sheets in the Supertwins class ahead of Rutter.