When Valentino Rossi retired at the end of last year, he had been racing motorcycles for 31 years. But what about Jeremy McWilliams, who’s been racing on and off for 35 years and is still going strong?
The 58-year-old Northern Irishman is a gnarly old warrior, whose hands and fingers (what’s left of them) are such a mess that they look like he’s gone a few rounds with a shoal of Great Whites. Eighteen months from now he will be able to claim his seniors card, but still he comes back for more: earlier this year he won a race at Daytona and stood on the podium at the North West 200.
There are three main factors that motivate professional racers to risk life and limb: money, ego and thrills, so which of those keeps McWilliams at it?
“The adrenaline, first,” he answers. “And that feeling of contentment you get when you pull something off, like the win at Daytona. You don’t come down from something like that for days.
“I’m so glad I’m still motivated. I still have a need to go racing, I still want to be competitive, I still want to earn bonuses, I still want to learn new things and I still want to help factories on the
