FHO have 'no confidence' in NW200 after withdrawal

Peter Hickman and Josh Brookes were set to ride for FHO Racing in the Superstock and Superbike classes

FHO Racing have withdrawn from the remainder of the North West 200 "due to no confidence in the application of the Superstock technical regulations".

The team were also set to compete in Saturday's Superbike races.

"This lack of confidence in the organisation renders the team's participation in this year's event impossible," a statement read.

Both Brookes and Hickman were permitted to qualify their BMW M 1000 RR machines on Tuesday and Thursday but, when the rest of the Superstock grid were preparing to go off on their pre-race sighting lap, Brookes told BBC Sport the team were prevented from racing due to their bikes having carbon wheels, which are not in the regulations.

The team subsequently pulled out of the remainder of the race meeting.

The North West 200 have been contacted for a response.

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FHO Racing, who also compete in the British Superbike Championship and Isle of Man TT Races, argue that their bikes passed scrutineering on Tuesday ahead of first practice and that carbon wheels were used by the team in 2022 and in the pre-Covid races in 2019.

"The Superstock class technical regulations mandate the machines must fully comply with conditions regarding the wheels, where Superstock machines must remain with the originally homologated wheels from the manufacturer, which from BMW are carbon," the team's statement added.

"It then goes on to prohibit carbon material, however aftermarket wheels are also not allowed and no mandated alternative specification is prescribed.

"Having taking this issue out with the North West 200 organisers, there is no confidence that the FHO Racing riders could take part in a race with the obvious dangers, and risks that road racing presents and then the performance protested or disqualified on a technicality that is not adequately explained.

"The FHO Racing team have checked the 2023 technical regulations against those of 2022 and the regulations remain the same, where the team raced the carbon homologated wheels in both Superstock races, as well as the event in 2019.

"The FHO Racing team would like to sincerely apologise to all its sponsors and fans, and the team are now looking forward to getting back out on the roads in a few weeks' time at the Isle of Man TT Races."

The technical infringement is the latest in a number of regulation issues at the event in recent years.

In 2022 Richard Cooper lost both of his Supertwin victories after his KMR Kawasaki was found to be running an illegal fairing.

Team boss Ryan Farquhar appealed the decision and a final verdict has yet to be reached 12 months on.