Some things are just meant to be, and John McGuinness on a Honda Fireblade at the Isle of Man TT in June is just one of motorcycle racing’s non-negotiables. After being together since 2006 (McGuinness has officially been with Honda since 2000, but the McGuinness/Fireblade marriage began in 2006), they decided to have some time apart between 2018 and 2021. It’s safe to say that during this time apart, neither McGuinness nor the Fireblade got close to bothering the top step of the podium at the 2018 and 2019 TTs. The Fireblade mustered up a few trips to the podium in 2018 and 2019 thanks to Conor Cummins and Dave Johnson, but the reality is that the Fireblade just didn’t have the firepower required to be competitive. Even if the 2020 and 2021 TT races had happened, which they didn’t due to Covid, McGuinness would have been racing a Kawasaki as the literal and emotional wounds of 2017 still needed to heal. However, for 2022, Honda has a brand new weapon to take to the Isle of Man, which, strictly speaking, isn’t new – it just hasn’t had the chance to race at the TT yet. And as if the gods of motorcycle racing weren’t content with just having Honda setting sail with a vastly different Fireblade, they also provided a scenario that even the most romantic scriptwriter couldn’t come up with.
The Fireblade celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2022 and McGuinness will start his 100th TT race at this year’s race, so it just had to happen that quite possibly one of the most iconic pairings in motorcycle racing would be reunited. The McGuinness/Fireblade combination has been formidable over the years, with McGuinness claiming 12 of the Fireblade’s 21 TT victories between 2006 and 2015. For perspective, the next most successful rider at the TT on a Fireblade is Ian Hutchinson with four wins... just let that sink in for a moment. The rest of the Fireblade’s wins at the TT have been in the hands of Michael Dunlop (two), Bruce Anstey and Steve Plater (one), and a very special mention to Jim Moodie, who also won one race on a Fireblade in the 1998 Production TT that was not only the Fireblade’s first TT victory, but also Honda’s 100th race win at the TT. McGuinness was also the first person to average 130mph over the TT course on… yes, you guessed it, a Fireblade in 2007. More than half of McGuinness’s 23 TT wins have been on a Fireblade, so of all the various plots and sub-plots at this year’s TT, the reunification of McGuinness with a Fireblade – but this time a genuinely competitive one – is mouth-watering.
How the story plays out is anyone’s guess, which is why we love bike racing so much, especially the TT. Could there be a fairytale comeback by both Honda and McGuinness? Nobody knows, least of all the man from Morecambe, but the whole world will by the time the sun sets on June 10. In the meantime, there’s not much point in trying to speculate or predict what might happen.
There are too many variables at the TT, too many things that can go wrong, and too many things that are out of your control that need to go right on the day, so what do you ask someone who has started 99 TT races? Well, I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity by asking him about his 100th – there’s no point.
I kept it simple and asked the most
