McGuinness back on the Blade as he leads Honda’s charge on the roads in 2022
Honda Racing UK is delighted to confirm that ‘TT Legend’ John McGuinness will return to Honda machinery in 2022 lining up alongside Glenn Irwin on the roads, as the team looks forward to debuting the race-winning CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP at both the North West 200 and the Isle of Man TT races.
John, who needs no introduction to road racing fans, has a vast and hugely successful history with Honda, having won 12 of the 20 TT wins the CBR1000RR Fireblade has amassed, where Honda still holds the accolade of the most successful manufacturer in the history of the Isle of Man TT Races, with 189 wins, 65 clear of their nearest rival.
John returns to Honda with the brand celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Fireblade. Updates to the 2022 Fireblade centre on mid-corner acceleration and drive, plus an iconic colour scheme in homage to the original ’92 Fireblade, which John will line up on at the TT as the ‘Morecambe Missile’ celebrates his 100th TT race start.
Joining John on the roads is four-time North West 200 Superbike race-winner and TT newcomer Glenn Irwin. Originally due to have made his Isle of Man debut in 2020, Glenn has had to wait two years with the event being cancelled due to the worldwide pandemic, where with no international road racing, Glenn has been developing the Fireblade SP in the British Superbike championship with multiple wins and podiums.
The Honda Racing UK team will be taking part in both the Superstock and Superbike classes at the NW200 and IOMTT Races, as well as the blue-riband Senior TT, which John last won in 2015 aboard the Fireblade.
John and Glenn will be at Motorcycle Live, the UK’s biggest motorcycle show, on Saturday 11 December, alongside the 2022 Fireblade SP which will make its UK debut when the show opens on Saturday 4 December.
And read below as we have a Honda UK Engine Room exclusive, where John Hogan catches-up with the legend himself, asking him questions ranging from his joy of the Fireblade, respect for Glenn, going back to the Isle of Mann and also his approach to the Northwest 200. This is an interview, not to be missed.
We tasked respected motorcyclist journalist, Beyond the Blade presenter and long-time friend of John McGuinness, John Hogan to catch-up with John in an exclusive interview that gives us a little glimpse into the world of the man that was awarded an MBE in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to motorcycle racing.
John Hogan:
How does it feel to be back with Honda and less than six months away from your favourite race on the planet?
John McGuinness
Six months! So that's a bit of a reality check, I didn't realise it was that close. I don't think that will make too much difference. I mean, I have a lot of experience around there so I should be able to remember where I'm going.
I’ve had four years away from Honda. It’s great to be back with them, sort of like putting a pair of comfy slippers back on, I'm sure I'll slip back into the way they work and how it all comes together. I'm really looking forward to it, and perhaps a little bit nervous. I’m particularly looking forward to working with Chris Pike, who has tons of experience. He’s been there and done it all.
John Hogan:
I know you've had a quick run out on the new Fireblade. It was new to everyone else from early 2020, you had a chance to ride one at Cadwell Park. Can you share any of your initial impressions of the SP model in particular?
John McGuinness
I just really, really enjoyed it. I was at a track day and Havier Beltran kindly brought one of the SPs along. It felt good, but Harv kept wanting me to come back into the pits. I’m not sure if Harv has ever ridden at Cadwell and we should have actually been sharing the bike and the track time. I was like, “nope, I’ll just do a few more laps! I must've done a hundred laps of Cadwell Park easy and I really enjoyed it.” You know, first impression was it's a brand-new machine and these things never really go backwards in terms of performance. There was some new technology to me. It felt smaller but I could move around on it better. It steered better and felt great on the brakes too.
John Hogan:
And from that then, are there any sections at Cadwell on a road going SP that give you any indication of what that the race version will be like at the Northwest or TT?
John McGuinness
There's no question about the power. I was looking for bumps and lumps that might chuck the bike off the ground with a jump and it felt good when she was off the ground and always landed straight. In road trim it made great power, especially down the big back straight. I've been racing the last couple of years and compared to the Fireblade the bikes I’ve been on felt a bit steady to be fair. I was like, ‘whoa! this needs my full on 110% concentration’. That's what it's going to take and I'm ready for the challenge.
John Hogan:
Your relationship with Honda and Fireblade is synonymous with the TT.
What is it about you and the Fireblade that's given you the relationship that you've had with it?
John McGuinness
I’ve won seven senior TTs, and all seven have been on a Honda. To my knowledge, no other bike has won as many big bike TTs as the Fireblade."
I think it’s the confidence I have in it and in the people around it, we work together so well. It takes a lot to get full confidence when you're walking up to that start line, looking down Bray Hill knowing you've got 226 miles to go. You need to be confident and fully able to concentrate on what you need to do. I know the team at that point will have done all they can. We've had a couple of breakdowns in the past which were nobody's fault and obviously we had a tough time in 2017, now it’s time to draw a line under that and move forward.
John Hogan:
Next year is a big year. It will be your 100th TT race start and the Honda Fireblade turns 30. That must bring some pressure to succeed. Realistically, what are you hoping to achieve in 2022?
John McGuinness
I was part of the centenary event for Honda back in 2007, and 2009 was also a big year for Honda too. So, you know, I've dealt with a lot before.
At the end of the day, when the visor shuts, I'm just going to go ahead and try to enjoy it."
Where I finished with Honda in 2016, I did a 132.7mph lap, which included slowing down for the pits, so if we can match that time, plus a little bit more on top I can’t see us being a million miles away. There's no reason why we can't win it. I’m hoping that we'll get a decent low start number and we'll be away with the fast guys. I know we'll be good in the pits. I know the strategy will be good and the team will be behind me. Added to that, I’ve got an interesting teammate, with newcomer Glenn Irwin taking on his first TT.
There's a lot to be said about being prepared for the TT and you've got to enjoy it.
You know, sometimes when you see people racing, it's like they're not enjoying it. Whereas I have always absorbed it and enjoyed it, so in a lot of ways it's going to be like any other TT for me.
If we finish on the podium, it will be a bonus, but if I can't find that hundred percent magic it may not happen. I hope I’ll have been able to try my best.
On the whole it’s going to make a good story, with the 30th anniversary of the Fireblade. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we get some decent weather and we can all go and enjoy it, that’s really what it's all about."
John Hogan:
How did it feel to be back on the island a couple of weeks ago?
John McGuinness
Yeah, it was amazing. I usually take the ferry, but I flew over and as we approached I saw the island and the old heart started to flutter. I could see the grandstand from the air, and the adrenaline kicked in and again confirmed that it’s really happening. Away from the TT, the Isle of Man is a wonderful place – everyone is so friendly and smiling with lots of people saying hello to me. For the last few years the first thing people say to me has been “How’s your leg? Now it’s “is the TT on?”. All of the other things I have been doing seemed to have passed people by so I’m just glad that we can focus on what is going to happen, rather than just talking about what might happen.
John Hogan:
Can you talk us through how you're going to approach the testing process leading up to Northwest and TT from now?
John McGuinness
These last couple of years, I've been racing at British Championship level, so we're sort of already in gear, I’ll just keeping that momentum going. I'm just going to approach it like I always have done. I went with the family to visit Honda in Louth recently and Harv has lent me a CRF450R, so I’m like a kid with a new toy! I’m going to get out over the winter and get some enduro riding in. Where I live now we have a minibike track and I’m by no means the best motocross rider, but it gets the heart going and gets everything working,
Following that, we have a test program ready and I’m really looking forward to getting into it. I’ll be heading to Spain with the Superbike team, I'm just going to do my own thing, get some bike fitness and enjoy it. The best thing for me are laps and being happy within myself. Ultimately, I’m going to go along for the ride and get back into the Honda system, like we did years ago.
That team aspect is big for me. We eat together, we have a beer together, we travel together, and for me they make you feel part of the family really."
It’s not a job for me, it’s about enjoying it and as I keep saying, it’s too dangerous not to enjoy it. There’s a lot of reasons why I want to go back. I don't want to go into massive details, but I didn't ever want my TT career to finish up at the Bungalow after going out with a mechanical issue. I've done 52,000 miles around the TT in racing conditions. There’s been many times I've crossed that line with a Chequered flag, sat up on a Honda with everybody and the team waiting for me and we've done a fantastic job and that's really what we want to do again. It's going to be epic, there’s not going to be a spare seat in the house and the place will be buzzing.
John Hogan:
What do all those wins do to in terms of pressure on yourself?
Have you reached that tipping point where you just don't care anymore, or are you carrying massive pressure that people can't see?
John McGuinness
I really do care. A lot of effort goes into it, with a lot of money and time spent by people involved. I do really, really appreciate that.
I don't want to just go and tick the box to say “oh I've done my hundredth start, thanks a lot lads see you later!” I want to perform, I really want to get stuck in and get amongst it."
I know what the guys are doing back at the factory and although some of the guys like Julian and Leighton have moved on, I'll never forget all of the people that have been around and have helped me.
Joey did it at 48 and that was 21 years ago. He came out fighting and he was on the ropes a little bit. Sometimes I feel a bit like that myself. Sometimes when your back is against the wall you've got to come out fighting, and that's where I am."
A lot of things have motivated me in the past year, people saying “he's over it, he’s too old or too fat and blah, blah, blah…”
In some ways, I like it, as it gets my back up and it helps get me motivated. As long as I bring something to the party, we can help everything go forward a little bit, help get everybody's confidence back in the product and the people, then I’ll feel like we've done our job.
John Hogan:
In terms of that pressure and confidence, do you think the layoff or the fact that you'll be 50 will play the bigger role? Which matters the most?
John McGuinness
I don't really think about any of that stuff. There's nothing I can do about my age so I just keep going. I don’t want to tempt fate. I don't want to wind things up. I don't want to say this is my last one. I don't want to throw the kitchen sink at it in any other way than I always have. I just want to keep the same consistency in what I've done and what has worked for me over the years but there is pressure. Right now I'm sat in my office where I find I’ll just write things down because I'm a bit weird. Like, what happens if that’ practice session is canceled? Or, it's raining on Monday, then it’s raining on Tuesday and we don't get on our bikes until the Wednesday and then the pressure builds. I think about how we can hit the ground running with momentum that other teams might not have. With my age comes a lot of experience, it might just give me a little advantage. That’s not to say the other riders aren’t smart too. When that flag drops, everybody will go hard, despite folk saying “we'll just settle into it”. Not a chance. It will be absolutely full-on, but you find the strength. I’ve been at the TT previously and after the first night everything is hurting, legs, neck, arms the list goes on. You think, ‘I can’t go on with this’. But we all find an inner strength, it’s amazing really.
John Hogan:
We plan to document and cover your journey during the whole of next season, along with Glenn Irwin, your new teammate. Shifting focus away from the TT for a minute, Glenn has four wins at the NW200 to your six, who is leading who at the North West when you two are going up Millbank avenue?
John McGuinness
I don’t care! (laughs!!) I first won there in 94, which tells you I’ve been going a long old time. The pressure is on Glenn for the North West. If it came down to it as we enter the Juniper chicane, he’d possibly get it. However, I can recall a number of times where a rider has missed the TT because of a mistake made on The Triangle. This may sound a bit selfish from me, but we have to be on the grid at the TT and so I ride the North West accordingly.
Glenn is going to be hell bent on winning the Northwest and good luck to him. I know what I can do as I have 34 podiums around there. I race at the NW200 with an invisible bubble round me and magic mirrors. I’m happy, I’m going fast but I don’t want anyone to touch me at the cost of the TT.
Things will change for Glenn when sticks his orange jacket on at the TT and he’s looking down the Glencrutchery road, the world will just look very different. I've been in that position before, I remember it well.
There's a lot of new pressure on the kid. When I did it there was no social media, I just rocked up in my van and away we went at quarter past five in the morning. It was bizarre, he won’t get that luxury. He’s in the factory Honda team and he’s my teammate but he’s doing his homework right and he can't do any more than that. We already speak and he sent me a picture yesterday, just looking at the right before the left before the Gooseneck. We talked about it, just the little things like how the road feels very vague through there and how you've got to be patient on the left to go up the hill to get the exit.
If I can give him a few pointers and make him go safer and a bit stronger then I've done my job. He knows you’ve got to start somewhere and there's no other way than doing it, getting your leathers on and getting stuck into the program."
A lot of people have gone to the TT thinking it's a lot easier than it is, but at least he knows exactly where he is on the track.
I’ve no doubt he will one hundred percent become a strong force for the TT, because he is young and hungry and he wants it. What’s more important is that he wants it for the right reasons."
John Hogan:
Swinging back to your TT. Is there a part of the track where you have a moment just for John McGuinness? When the sun's in a certain place and everything's just perfect. What's that moment that you've been looking forward to getting back to at the TT on the Honda Fireblade?
John McGuinness
I couldn’t pick out one particular place but I've been in an amazing and fortunate position to have had a 40 second lead in the Senior race and there's no feeling like it in the world. The bike's singing, you've cut the RPM down by 500 and you know you can hit all the spots you need to. You hit all the apexes and you may allow yourself to do an extra little cheeky wheelie! You have this big grin on your face, you see all the people out on the track and they're enjoying it, watching something that's out of this world. All of those little bits soak in, that’s my happy place.
What can I say really, it's like coming back home to the family! I've been in talks for a while with Neil and Harv and it's just something that feels right; it's the 30th anniversary of the Fireblade, I'll be 50 years old and also celebrating my 100th TT start, so it feels like it's meant to be. I've enjoyed a lot of success on the roads with the Honda and worked with Harv back in the day with HM Plant Honda, so I'm looking forward to getting back into the set-up and getting going. I had a little go on the Fireblade earlier this year and was impressed with it on-track, so looking forward to getting on the roads and seeing how it goes. It's going to be a special year with everything going on and also just getting back to the North West 200 and the TT and everyone racing there again - I can't wait to get stuck in!
John McGuinness
Finally, I’ll be making my long-awaited TT debut with Honda! We’re now more familiar with the new Fireblade and the team is more familiar; I like to have home comforts as such and continuing with the bike and the same team I think puts us in a better position with frame of mind. We still have no targets set and no expectations for the Isle of Man TT, we’re going there to learn and enjoy. It’s incredible to have someone like John as my teammate on the roads, he’s someone I have looked up to and is probably the second greatest TT rider after another Honda-man Joey! To have that opportunity to be able to learn off him, and able to be part of the team, see everything first-hand and to learn off him experiencing the ‘McGuinness-factor’ is something I am really excited about! On the flip side, we go to the North West 200 where we can work together and I think we can realistically set targets there – I would love to achieve Honda’s first international road race win on the new Fireblade at the NW200 and add to my Superbike wins there. We’re fully aware we’ve not been there in a few years, but like everyone else, we’ll go, and we’ll do our homework. For sure the Honda team are the best to go road racing with, and BSB, and hopefully we can find out feet during practice and if we’re feeling confident look towards adding to the NW200 wins.
Glenn Irwin
I'm really pleased we've been able to work with John on a deal for 2022, it's going to be an exciting season for us all with the 30th anniversary of the Fireblade and John's 100th TT start, and for him to do this back with Honda just made complete sense. Honda has so much history with John at the TT and 12 of the 20 wins for the CBR1000RR Fireblade have been with him, so for us all this is very much a homecoming. We also have Glenn, who will finally make his debut at the TT, which has been a long time coming, but we're all really excited for this and to see how he gets on. There's absolutely no pressure on Glenn, it's about learning and finding his way at the TT, and with John's experience, I don't think he could ask for a better teammate to learn from. From a Honda point of view, this will be Honda UK's first time back at both the North West 200 and the Isle of Man TT races since 2010, so we're all excited to get back on the roads with the new Fireblade.
Havier Beltran - Team Manager, Honda Racing UK:
We’re absolutely delighted to be returning to the international road racing programme following the challenges of the last few years, particularly as 2021 would have been the 60th anniversary of Honda’s first TT win with Mike Hailwood in 1961. Quite simply, the Isle of Man TT has been an integral part of Honda’s DNA and to continue this story with a returning ‘TT Legend’ like John who can also help and support Glenn in his first year is a really exciting period for us. With all the success that John has had with Honda, it only feels right that his 100th start on the Isle of Man is on the latest Fireblade. We are also really looking forward to heading to the North West 200 and are confident the combination of Glenn and John aboard the latest Fireblade will be at the sharp end having both won the race on multiple occasions.
I’m thrilled that our 2022 racing plans, including the recently announced BSB rider line up, is now complete and I just can’t wait for both the roads and short circuit seasons to get going!
Neil Fletcher – Head of Motorcycles, Honda UK
We’ll be following John, Glenn and all the Racing team once again in 2022 with exclsuvie Engine Room Videos, and articles. Be sure to stay up to date with all racing activity via our racing Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, in addition to our videos on YouTube.
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