至于TT他说:“我很好,我的感觉the same as ever. But I have say I look forward to it more when I’ve finished. I do get a bit nervous and a bit anxious and there is a lot of hype about the TT now compared to when I started racing.” That was in 1996, riding a 250cc Honda for Paul Bird racing.
“Back then no-one was really bothered about what you did apart from the people who read MCN(BikeSocial wasn’t around in 1996! – Ed). Now there’s Twitter, Facebook and everyone’s watching everyone.”
But as ever, the Honda set-up ‘feels right’ for McGuinness. “It’s a motorbike capable of doing more than 200 mph with the right people and, more importantly, people I trust so it is a strong and steady ship. You have to work with people like that.”
“这’s the same with the Jackson Racing team, they are good people and I have known them a long time,” he says. And despite being a 23-time TT winner, McGuinness still finds those moments sat on the grid before setting off deeply unpleasant.
“这’s horrible,” he says. “Your heart is pumping and you do get nervous, you know what can happen on out there but as soon as you drop the clutch you're away and then that’s it. You’re in the moment. You blank out everything else that’s going on except racing.”
Of course, the TT circuit epic, eat lap is 37 and three quarter miles long and in the Senior and Superbike races riders race a total of 225 miles. To master this lengthy course many riders have established methods - such as painting on trees (as in the famous ‘K’ tree at Conker Trees, which antique dealer Joe Thornton painted in the 1970s to warn him of the protruding kerb) to counting the bends in numerical order.
