Pole Position Travel - MotoGP, WSBK and Road racing travel specialists - Weekend tours,VIP packages, team experience and tickets

See all published photos

Northwest 200 2027 is published!

Event review - Northwest 200 2026

Mass start racing on real roads! Does it get any more exciting?
Our inaugural tour to the North West 200 was a great success! We started on Wednesday with an opening dinner featuring our guide and former TT legend the Scottish racer Keith Amor. Keith has actually won races at the North West so he knows his way around the place and even better knows many of the teams and riders which gave our guest the inside track.

Thursday, we departed to a roadside position to watch the qualifying sessions. Unfortunately, the super bike qualifying was Red flagged owing to an accident. We would later learn that this came about because of the tragic fatality of Czech rider Kamil Holman. Needless to say this was a gut wrenching tragedy. The day was cold and windy. Fortunately there was a brilliant café near our location where we could wait out the red flag delay. However, the delay turned into a complete cancellation so we headed back on the short journey to our hotel where we could warm up with classic Irish beverages!

Thursday evening was originally to be the first races but instead they moved the qualifying sessions which had been cancelled to the evening. We hung out at the lovely Tides restaurant for food, drink and excellent viewing and of course a warm spot against the cold windy weather!

Friday morning Keith led us around the Circuit with a corner by corner description of the racer's perspective. This really drove home how insane the riders were! Even more so when you consider that they are writing in a mass start in a head to head race on these ordinary country roads!

Following our lap of the track, we took a tour of the Paddock (where Keith knows everybody!) and he brought us into several garages where the team managers or owners would give us a tour and talk about their efforts in the North West. In the afternoon one group took a tour of the world famous Bushmills distillery the oldest distillery in the world. Utterly fascinating and of course we could sample their product at the end! We also paid a visit to the famous Giants Causeway which has to be one of the most beautiful seascapes in the world. The evening was free for all guests some of us went to the famous Harbour Bar where several teams were hanging out including "our" team MLav Racing (who we sponsor in MotoGP) who were racing the newcomer Storm Stacey. We expressed our deep hope that they could bag a podium on Saturday. They would greatly exceed our wishes!

Saturday was a beautiful clear day, albeit cold and windy but great for racing! We were all in the VIP which was very busy and with tons of atmosphere! After each race, the podium finishers would join us. The racing was marred by red flags with five of the six races being stopped. However, it didn't stop us from having a grand time, meeting many riders, and of course seeing the racing from close to the start and the podium. There was an exciting charity auction which raised over £70,000 for the Northwest 200 non-profit organisation.

We concluded the tour with closing drinks at our now favourite bar at the Marcus Portrush Hotel!

On Sunday, several of us went to Belfast to the very famous Lavery's Bar and watched the MotoGP race over Guinness and classic Irish grub!

An amazing first tour to the Northwest 200 and we will be coming back even bigger next year!