THIS ONE IS FOR YOU DAD

Paul fulfiled a lifetime ambition by winning the 125cc race at Saturday's Relentless North West 200 and dedicated the victory to his father who was killed at the event in 1980.

A wave of emotion overcame Paul as he crossed the finish line to wrap up his maiden victory in the event after narrowly missing out on several occasions in the past during 14 previous attempts.

And when the dust had settled on Saturday's win, Paul made a poignant trip on Sunday to his father's grave at Kilraughts Presbyterian Church to lay his winner's wreath.

"The feeling is hard to explain," Paul told Times Sport on Monday.

"This is everything I have ever wanted. When I started racing it was my biggest aim to win it, even more so than the Grand Prix races.

"It wasn't until I went past the last corner that I was 100% sure I was going to win and when I did that I wanted to wave to the crowd and that but I didn't want to bring any bad luck onto myself at that stage!

"But it's hard to believe and is still sinking in. As I crossed the line it felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders, it was a great feeling. "The pressure will be off now for future North West events and I'll be able to enjoy them that bit more."

The 35-year-old capitalised on favourite William Dunlop's second lap retirement to coast home for his first win at the prestigious event.

Robinson was always in control even though the threat of Isle of Man resident Chris Palmer could never be discounted in the middle part of the race.

Palmer looked nailed on to finish as runner-up before he was forced to pull out with mechanical trouble, allowing Jon Vincent through for second with Belgian Renzo Van der Donckt taking third position.

Paul said he had a feeling all week that he would do well in the event, despite initial setbacks with his bike which ruled him out of Tuesday's practice.

"We had a problem with the bike on Tuesday and then we thought there might be rain on Thursday so I was thinking 'oh no, here we go again'," he said.

"But thankfully that wasn't to be the case.

"I actually said to ones before the race that I felt it was my year."

And despite some concerns over the Honda on the morning of the race, it carried Paul across the finish line and to victory.

It was due to his father's tragic accident three decades ago that Paul decided to focus his career mainly on short circuits and almost walked away from the sport altogether when his uncle Robert Dunlop was killed in 2008.

However Paul did a U-turn last year when he took the decision to complete a full season on the roads in 2010 in the 125cc Irish Championship.

REPORT: Chris Kilpatrick