North West 200 4.95

The North West 200 is a motorcycling race meeting held each May in Northern Ireland. It is held in a 8.970mi road course between the towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush in Causeway Coast and Glens. The course, known as the Triangle, is one of the fastest in the world, with average speeds of 120mi/h and top speeds in excess of 200mi/h.The North West 200 is one of around fifteen events run on public roads between April and October throughout Northern Ireland. It is the largest annual sporting event in Northern Ireland, with the race weekend attracting over 150,000 visitors from all over the world.Originally intended to be held somewhere in the north west of Ireland and organised by the City of Derry & District Motor Club, the initial event was moved to the north coast but the name was never changed. Since 1964 the event has been organised by the Coleraine and District Motor Club. In 2010 the meeting featured daytime practice on the Thursday for the first time.The 2011 event took place on Saturday 21 May. There were significant delays due to a hoax bomb alert and then an extensive oil spill on the track caused racing to be cancelled after the completion of only one race.Race formatThe North West 200 was originally run over two hundred miles as a handicap race, before changing to its current format of several separate races, each running 4–6 laps during Saturday afternoon. Practice is held on the Tuesday and Thursday evenings before the race. Both the practice and races are held on closed roads, but unlike the Isle of Man TT races which are run in a time-trial format, all riders compete together as with normal circuit racing.