John McGuinness has been recognised in the New Year's Honours list for 'services to motorcycles and motorcycle racing', this is perhaps well overdue after his long and illustrious career and chalking up no less than 23 victories on the extremely challenging Isle Of Man circuit. He first raced on the Isle of Man in 1999 and has achieved great things at the TT as well as gaining notable successes in the North West 200, Macau GP and the Ulster GP. He started off racing in the Lightweight category at the TT, but has since competed in many categories and shown his all round prowess and versatility.

He was unusually almost lost for words on hearing about his MBE, tweeting:
“Well I’m speechless for once! Unbelievable response from all you guys, amazing! Been reading all the messages it means so much, wish I could reply to you all. Huge thanks to everybody that has made it happen. 30yrs of racing, now the icing on the cake an MBE.”

He was due to race in the 2020 TT with Kawasaki,  but the event was cancelled last year, due to Covid 19 so he will have to get his TT tally up hopefully in 2021 if the TT is able to go ahead this year. He currently stands second in the all time winners list so let's hope he has a chance to race this year to get his scores up! Congratulations to John McGuinness, it's great to have some really good news to start the year with!

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