John McGuinness reveals 2020 plans
Friday 10 January 2020
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John McGuinness will ride for Pete Extance's Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki team at TT 2020.
McGuinness, who has 23 TT wins to his name, has ridden - and won on - a wide variety of machinery at the TT, will enter a new chapter with his first race on a Kawasaki bike.
It's a big change also for the Bournemouth outfit, who backed James Hillier for 10 years which saw him take 44 top-ten finishes. In December Hillier announced he would be riding for the OMG Racing outfit, campaigning BMW S1000s alongside David Johnson.
John has had a torrid time at the TT since his spectacular ride to victory in the 2015 Senior. That incredible display of skill and bravery saw McGuinness push the ageing Honda Fireblade to the limits as he rode it to a then lap record of 132.701mph in an incredible effort to hold off Hillier, Ian Hutchinson and Guy Martin.
Since then John has suffered an almost career-ending crash at the North West 200 and managed a difficult comeback to racing with Norton.
In the meantime the pace needed to win Superbike races at the Isle of Man TT has jumped up massively. Michael Dunlop, Dean Harrison and, especially, Peter Hickman have pushed the envelope of performance expectations - repeatedly smashing the lap record barrier to leave it standing at 135.452mph - more than two percent faster than John has ever gone.
However, on proven, reliable and competitive machinery and with a well-honed team in the garage, 2020 could well see John back at the sharp end of action in the big bike races.
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