Stroud’s Dan Cooper enjoyed an excellent set of results at the International North West 200 road races in Northern Ireland, with three top ten finishes and a new personal best lap time.

With five races in total across Thursday evening and Saturday, it was a busy week for Dan and the team but he opened his account in superb style on Thursday when, in perfect conditions around the high speed roads of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush, he finished in a superb eighth place in the six-lap Supersport race.

After qualifying in tenth place, Dan ran as high as fourth in the early stages on the KW Electrical/CMS Honda, before slipping back slightly and although multiple winner Ian Hutchinson overhauled him for seventh on the final lap, the gap between the two was just half a second at the chequered flag.

Nevertheless, eighth was a superb result and, held over the same distance, the Superstock race immediately followed where despite encountering a few issues with the throttle, he brought the IMP Cross Engineering BMW home in a solid 14th place.

Saturday again saw good conditions on the Causeway Coast with the second Supersport race getting the programme underway at 10am but although Dan crossed the line in 11th place, he picked up two ten-second penalties due to overshooting two of the chicanes and that dropped him back to 17th.

The rest of the day went brilliantly though and, riding the IMP Cross Engineering Superstock BMW once more, he took a superb tenth place in the seven-lap Superbike race and then followed this up with an identical result in the second six-lap Superstock race.

Posting a new personal best lap of the circuit, 120.063mph, which was almost six seconds quicker than his previous best, he was only two seconds adrift of eighth place to complete an excellent week of racing at the first International road race of the season.

Dan said: “It’s been a really good week and I’ve been particularly happy with my results on the 1000cc BMW. We’ve got it working really well and it was good to not only be competitive but also to be running with some of the top riders and teams. Having lapped at 4m 34s previously, I really wanted to get into the 4m 20’s this week so to lap six seconds quicker than before was a great boost and shows how well the BMW was working. I felt comfortable on it all week.

“I was lacking a little bit of power on the 600 and I was a bit disappointed not to have got seventh in the first Supersport race but with three top ten finishes, I’ve got to be happy with how this year’s North West 200 has gone. We’ve made good progress with both bikes and the good weather has made it an enjoyable week for the whole team so I’m in a good place going into the TT and can’t wait to get going.”

Dan will now head to the Isle of Man TT Races with first practice on Saturday.