The North West 200 was next on the Morgan/DMRR road show with high hopes of some good results and a boost before heading to the Isle of Man for the TT. Although disappointed that he could not ride in the 250cc race and defend his title, Davy’s mind was firmly focussed on the job ahead.

Tuesday Practice
It was a steady start to practice with both sessions being a bit stop/start following a couple of heavy fallers causing the red flags to come out. Davy got seven laps completed on the Superbike with a best time of 4:36.799 @ 116.610mph and thirteenth place followed by four laps on the Supersport 600 and a lowly seventeenth at just over 110mph and finally one lap on the Superstock, which has not been looked at since last years UGP so it was all wrong and needed a lot of work before Thursday’s session.
Davy, “We never really got flowing with the stoppages, although I am reasonably happy with the Superbike even though it needs some small adjustments, the Supersport still has a quite a bit to go, but is heading in the right direction. The Superstock will need changed to get the riding position right.”

Thursday Practice
After a lot of work on Wednesday Davy and his team were ready to go again on Thursday. It was another six laps on the Superbike with brake problems restricting progress although Davy did still push his lap speed to over 117mph. The Superstock riding position had been corrected, but it was well off the pace and was a real disappointment with a quickest lap time 4:44.523 @ 113.445mph and well down the grid. There was no laps on the Supersport so it was Tuesday time and the back of the first group start on Saturday.

Saturday Race Day
It was mixed fortunes on race day and overall disappointing and frustrating with two DNF’s, an eighth, eleventh and fourteenth. The opening race was the De-Walt Superbike and a poor start saw Davy well down the order on the opening lap, he began to move through the field even though he was having brake problems, which got worse and culminated in a trip up the slip road at University and retirement, not a good start to the day. In the Club SOI Supersport Race Davy got a great start and was in the leading bunch down in to York, although he could not stay with them on the DMRR CBR600RR but rode hard to take a creditable eighth place with more recognised top runners Archibald, Lindsay and Finnegan behind him. The CP Hire Superstock was Davy’s next outing and with the bike uncompetitive and not to his liking, it was a case of just keep going and bring it home eventually in fourteenth. Before the Blackhorse Finance North West 200 the team changed the brake pads on the DMRR Fireblade, which solved the braking problems and saw Davy produce probably his best ride of the day and his fastest lap of the week at 118.928mph and work his way from 20th on lap one to finish an impressive eleventh place although the boy from Saintfield was hoping for even better. The final race of the day was the Ballymoney Borough Council Supersport Race and a clutch failure saw Davy get no further than York Corner and finish the weeks proceedings on a very low note.

A disappointed Davy commented, “I was hoping for better, I rode as hard as I ever had on this circuit with little reward. Bill (Simpson) and the team have worked really hard, but at the moment the Supersport is just not good enough and the Superstock is well away from what it needs to be if I am to be competitive on it. I am well pleased with the Superbike although frustrated that the results were not better. The best finish, eighth in the 600 race was a surprise although I had to ride the wheels of it to get there, I was hoping for more of the same in the final race, but mechanical problems put paid to that.”