John McGuinness told me “you get used to it” over chilling Isle of Man TT fear

Glenn Irwin knew his time on the roads was coming to an end after a frank conversation with John McGuinness.

Irwin will retire from road racing in 2025 citing prioritising his young family.

He has won the past 11 Superbike races at the North West 200 and competed at the Isle of Man TT once, two years ago.

“It’s hard at the Isle of Man,” Irwin confessed at Motorcycle Live.

“You have breakfast in the morning. There were a lot of documentary cameras around the house. And I’m looking at my son and you don’t know if you’re going to have dinner with him.

“As much as riding the bike is amazing to me, it’s not worth having that feeling. It’s genuinely what you feel.

“I said to John McGuinness, the brain is saying ‘why are you doing this’ and the heart is saying ‘you love to be here’.

“He said you just get used to it because that feeling is not going to go away, it’d been like that for him for 20-odd years. But hearing that was the point that I said this isn’t for me.

“You’re a human being. I think people look at motorcycle racers like we’re Power Rangers.

“But we have the same thoughts as everyone else here. I guess it’s maybe like going into war? Probably excited, but anxious. You get it when you go road racing.

“Thankfully we’ve had a lot of success, we’re all happy we’ve won. Usually when the week’s over, me, the team owners, and mechanics, we’re all happy we’re coming home. Maybe that’s part of the addiction of road racing.”

Jordan Bird of PBM Ducati added: “I think it’s important to know when you’ve got what you want out of something. For us, as a team with Glenn, we’ve achieved what we wanted.

“And I think quit while you’re ahead. No, not even quit, but finish at the top.

“And as far as I’m concerned if Glenn doesn’t want to do the North West, then we won’t be there. It’s his bike, it’s his team. We’re all there for him. I’m happy with the decision he made, and it came at the right time as well.”

Bird described the nerves of watching Irwin on the roads: “As a woman I’m a bit of a control freak. I do everything that I can off track, and then it’s down to Glenn after that.

“The nerves are very, very different in road racing. It was actually my first North West, it was always a boy’s trip, so I was never on that one before. But the nerves are definitely very different.

“It’s sort of an elephant in the room that nobody ever speaks about. We all know exactly how everybody is feeling, but it’s a feeling that if you could bottle it up and sell it, you’d be very, very rich.”

Irwin ends his road racing career with a legendary CV.

His triple-win at Oulton Park, his record-breaking at the North West 200, and appearances at Macau and the Isle of Man TT will live long in the memory.

“That week we won three races at Oulton Park and went to the North West and won six races in six days,” Irwin remembered.

“I nearly bankrupted the team with the bonus money!

2That was an amazing week, and it was only round two or three of Jordan and Frank running the team full time, we’d done Navarra and the next six races we won. We won a further race at Donington a week later, and we’d won seven out of nine races in two weeks. An incredible achievement.

“My roads career was a lot of stuff that I never dreamed of. I never thought I’d compete at the Isle of Man TT. But as a dad that wasn’t something I wanted to continue.

“The North West 200 is where I kind of made my name. I had eleven consecutive victories; eight with Ducati, eight with PBM, three on the v-twin, and five on the V4 R.

“We also went to Macau together and set the fastest ever lap, and won Macau. Great achievements. Way more than I ever thought, I never thought I’d even turn a wheel in road racing and thanks to Jordan, Frank, to Paul, and everyone at PBM, we wrote history together.

“To step out and look back at what we achieved is a really nice feeling.”