Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness heads to Japan for Suzuka 8 Hour
Isle of Man TT legend is heading for Japan after securing another top 15 result in the British National Superstock 1000 Championship.
The 19-time TT winner will rejoin his Honda TT Legends teammates for the Suzuka 8 Hours this weekend. The prestigious race, which always attracts a quality line-up of racers, is the third round of the Endurance World Championship.
Although the Morecambe racer admitted his 13th place in Sunday’s superstock round at Brands Hatch was not ideal, he said he had enjoyed riding the GP circuit and was now looking forward to competing in Japan.
Riding for Padgetts Honda, McGuinness fought his way back up the field after a sluggish first lap to secure 3 championship points
Heading into the 9th race of the season, McGuinness qualified in 11th and his expectation the 15-lap confrontation would be a tough event proved correct as he was forced down to 19th in the opening laps.
By half distance, he was back up to 16th, and near a points finish, when the safety car came out following an incident involving Steve Brogan.
The safety car pulled in 4 laps later and McGuinness immediately moved up to 14th, a position he held over the final 3 laps. Later he was promoted to 13th when 12th-place finisher Leon Morris was excluded following a post-race technical inspection.
McGuinness said:
“I’ve really enjoyed riding the bike this weekend and felt good out on track, but whilst I could do good, competitive lap times when I was circulating on my own, it was really hard work in the race conditions.”
“A lot of the riders are like pint-sized jockeys and they're slow in the corners, but fast down the straights, which really compromised my race. The first lap was a bit of a nightmare and it's amazing no-one went down, but I kept it upright and then tried as hard as I could to get back in the top 15.”
He added:
“A few of the boys crashed out, which handed me a couple of positions, and I ended up in 13th. Not ideal, admittedly, but it's always good to race on the GP track and, like I say, I've enjoyed my riding over the last couple of days.”
“I'm looking forward to Japan now and I'll be hoping we can score a good result in the World Endurance Championship race for the Honda TT Legends team."