Happy birthday, John McGuiness MBE! Born in Morcambe, Lancashire this day in 1972.
John is known for being a Isle of Man TT specialist with 23 wins and 47 podiums to his name putting him 3rd, behind Michael Dunlop and Joey Dunlop, for all time wins. That includes 7 Senior TT titles, equalling the record with the great Mike Hailwood.
John’s first TT race was in 1996 riding a Honda RS250R but he had to wait until 1999 to claim his first win.
His most successful year was in 2006 when he took trophies for the Senior, Superbike and Supersport races.
In May 2017 McGuinness suffered serious injuries during practice for the Superbike race at the North West 200 event in Northern Ireland. He suffered broken vertebrae, ribs and compound fractures to his right lower leg bones, requiring surgeons to remove 50mm (2.0 in) and needing an external fixator cage to ‘grow’ new bone. John used a spanner to regularly adjust the cage, creating a 1 millimetre gap across which the new bone growth occurs. I took a year for him to recover from his injuries.
Sorry if you’re eating your breakfast.
Despite the damage and extended recuperation, McGuiness was back on the mountain in 2019, winning the Classic TT on a Paton in August.
In 2022, John made his 100th TT start in the Superbike race, finishing 5th, at 50 years old. Legend.