JOHN MCGUINNESS SET TO CELEBRATE 30 YEARS OF ROAD RACING 2024 BRIGGS EQUIPMENT NORTH WEST 200 - North West 200

When John McGuinness walks to the grid for this year's Briggs Equipment North West 200 from 6-11. race week in May, the Morecambe man will celebrate a very special anniversary at the North Coast event.

Winner of six NW200 races and one of the sport's true legends, the Honda Racing star made his road debut 30 years ago aboard a TZ 250cc Yamaha at the 1994 North West 200.

"I've always wanted to do Northwest." McGuinness explained during a recent visit to Portrush.

“I had raced in the British championships, but I wanted to be a road racer. I had read all the books, listened to the stories and my mates Lee Pullan, Mick Lofthouse and David Jefferies all did it. It felt natural and I was offered a free boat and free entry to the race in 1994, which is unheard of in this day and age!”

The Morecambe man was accompanied on his first trip to the north coast by his girlfriend Becky, who is now his wife.

"We just bought a few cans of beans and soup and set off in the van." McGuinness recalls.

“But my father, who was my mechanic, didn't want me to go road racing and refused to come with us. I had no idea what I was really getting myself into.”
Arriving in Northern Ireland amid civil unrest, one of the first things the couple encountered as they rolled off the ferry was a military checkpoint.

"I didn't have insurance on the van so I was quite worried, but racing to the North West was like a free pass." McGuinness says.

"The soldiers thought it was a cool thing to do, and they sent us on our way."

Although warmly welcomed as a newcomer to the NW200 paddock, McGuinness missed his father's mechanical skills and initially felt out of his depth. Struggling with limited funds, he injured tires from Dunlop and Brake Pads from other riders.

"I did the best I could with what I had and I made friends with everyone because I had to learn." McGuinness says, but he was scared off by an alarming incident on the first lap of the course.

"It was maddening." he typically recalls directly.

"I rounded the York hairpin and where the Mill Road roundabout is today, followed by an uphill right. I heard a scraping sound and Stephen Haslett slid past me on the pavement on his back after sliding off the wet road.

McGuinness qualified well down the order, failing to finish in either 250cc race after suffering clutch problems.

"But I had done it and competed there." he reflects.

“I had dipped my toe into road racing, felt the speed and felt all the bumps. The clean roads were so different compared to the short circuits. Speeds were very high on roads with different types of asphalt and different grip levels.

The friendships made during the first NW200 trip have lasted to this day.

"I met the Reverend John Kilpatrick (one of the Irish Road Race's local chaplains) and we were taken on a trip to the Causeway coast on the Friday of race week." McGuinness recalls.

“It was free and lunches were bought, so Becky and I went along. We were also given money at the end of the race week when we didn't have enough funds to transport the fuel home.

Hooked by the excitement of the roads, McGuinness became a regular for the North West and two years later had a breakthrough moment in his career at Portrush.

"If you were to ask me to pick one standout moment from the past 30 years at NW200, it would be 1996." he says.

“After two years of learning the track and weighing the job, I found myself at the top of the 250cc race when the flag dropped. It was a defining moment for me, the moment I thought I could do road racing because there were a lot of 250cc greats there, including Joey Dunlop, Phillip McCallen, Phelim Owens, Robbie Milton, Callum Ramsey, Woolsey Coulter and Owen McNally. . I had gone from struggling on the most uncompetitive bikes to playing with Joey Dunlop.

A year later, the Morecambe man achieved his first podium at the event, finishing second behind Callum Ramsey in the inaugural 250cc race. But he had to wait until 2000 before securing his first NW200 victory, which came in the 250cc race of the same year.

Four years later McGuinness achieved a North West double in 400cc and Supersport before taking his first Superbike win in 2007. Another big bike victory followed in 2010 and his last North West success came in 2012, again in the Superbike class.

"I'm really proud of my wins in the North West because the North West is a tough place to win." McGuinness says.

"The TT is a time trial and you do your own thing, but when you're hurtling down the Metropole at 200km/h with half a dozen top BSB racers around you, you really have to be in the right place at the right time and be ready to stick your neck out to win the North West. I've done it a few times and I've missed a few too."

"I probably should have won a few more but I've been racing alongside Steve Plater, Michael Rutter, Guy Martin and Bruce Anstey, leading up the coast road on the last lap and then finishing third and wondering what happened!" McGuinness agrees.

"Maybe I just wasn't aggressive enough, I just wasn't willing to risk everything."

The Morecambe man also has painful moments from the incident after suffering a compound fracture of his right leg and multiple fractured vertebrae when he was thrown from his Honda Fireblade during practice at Primrose in 2017.

McGuinness has changed a lot since he took to the North West 200 circuit, becoming one of the sport's most successful and beloved figures. The 23-time TT winner says the North West 200 has continued to play a significant role throughout his road racing career.

"Over the last 30 years, I've gone from two-strokes to four-strokes, carburetors to fuel injection, fly wire and then traction control, and I'm still holding on." he reflects, while acknowledging that his days on the top step of the podium are likely over.

"This year my aim is to help Dean Harrison, my new team mate at Honda, win the North West race and I want Nathan to have a safe race. For me, I just want to go out and enjoy myself. In the last couple of years I've maybe been a bit under the radar in fifth, sixth or seventh, but I'm more than happy with that. That's all I've got in my arsenal these days - a decent, fast, safe ride, and if I get tenth, I'm tenth, or if it's fourth, it's fourth. If I get a podium, that would be icing on the cake.

"I have a lot of great memories of Northwest." the veteran road racer smiles.

“All the camaraderie and craziness we had during the great nights at Kelly's and the Anchor, I don't think we'll ever get it again. The event has changed a lot in the last 30 years, but otherwise things haven't changed much. There might be more risk assessments, a bit more asphalt on the corral, with bigger trucks and hospitality units, which is great to see, but the roads are still roads with curbs and lampposts. What you have to deal with when looking through a visor at high speed hasn't changed at all, except I was going a bit faster!”