Alistair Seeley is a 29-time winner in the North West 200 and could be a strong candidate in 2025, but there must be incidents on qualifying day at the event on Wednesday.
Seely will return to the Northwest 200 a year later and is about to add to this week’s 29 victory tally.
The Northwest 200 on Wednesday was truncated by multiple red flags, including an incident in which two riders were taken to hospital, with only superbike and supersport classes winning the lap.
Sealy came in third in the BMW Superbike class and 14th in Kawasaki Supersport.
In the latter session he admits that due to a small mistake with the visor he had to come back to the front of the red flag anyway.
“I don’t know why the red flag was released, but there was a problem anyway,” he told BBC Sports early during a supersport session.
“The visor had a cover I had forgotten to take off.
“You have to do it all once, but hopefully we won’t do it again.
“It’s my fault. I probably should have shut the visor before I left to get my eyesight visible.”
Michael Dunlop: On the back
Michael Dunlop was especially placed on his superbike “backfoot”, but the lack of track time proved to be truly frustrating for everyone.
Dunlop will need time to sort the gearing of the new M1000RR BMW, which he replaced with a Honda that he has raced in his class in recent years, but he only managed three laps on Wednesday.
He was left in the 7th place in the Superbike Times.
“I only did three laps, but some of the other boys got a few more laps,” he said.
“There was a lack of having a superbike and gear, and we really remained behind.
“We went in after rapping, so it was a bit frustrating, so some red flags stopped it, and that’s exactly how it is.
“It was a tough job when you were very late.
“I understand that everyone worked so hard to get it.
“But the outcome is still the same whether they work hard or not. If you leave that long enough, it leaves you a little on your hind legs.
“But we’re going to work hard tonight. There’s a lot of data to see where we need to be in the two laps we did.”
Qualifying continues on Thursday morning, before the first race of the night takes place.