Adrian Archibald quits road racing
Northern Ireland road racer Adrian Archibald says the time is right to break away from the sport after a 21-year career.
Archibald remains the last rider ever to beat John McGuinness in a superbike event following his victory in the 2003 Senior race.
McGuinness has been beaten since in the premier class at the TT, but only when he has failed to finish.
Archibald, from Ballymoney in County Antrim, also won the Formula One race at the TT in 2003 to complete an emotional double achieved following the tragic death in practice of his teammate and TT legend David Jefferies.
He returned in 2004 with the Northern Ireland TAS Racing team and again won the prestigious Senior race to claim the third of his three Isle of Man TT victories.
The 43-year-old also won six times at the Ulster Grand Prix and once at the North West 200.
Archibald has also racked up over 100 wins at the National roads meetings in Ireland since he began his racing career in 1992.
The easy-going Ulsterman made his decision to step back from racing after it became apparent he would not have the same financial backing from his sponsors in 2013.
"I sat down with my sponsor and we decided that we wouldn't run the team this year and after that I decided that I'd just forget about it," he said.
"Sponsorship was going to be light enough this year and between the two of us we decided that would be it.
"I would say I probably won't race ever again, but it's not something that bothers me.
"It's just come to that time now and it's no big deal. I'm happy enough with my career when I look back at it.
"I won races everywhere so there's not much I can complain about. I think I had five or six wins at the Ulster Grand Prix and a win at the North West 200, plus three at the TT.
"My TT wins are obviously the biggest ones for me - the TT and the Ulster Grand Prix were always my favourite races and no doubt I'll probably miss them a bit," Archibald added in the Belfast News Letter.
"I just tried to keep it as safe as I could over the years and I was just lucky that I got away with it."
Archibald's decision is a setback for the smaller roads meetings in Ireland in particular, after Ryan Farquhar also quit the sport last season following the death of his uncle in an accident at the Manx Grand Prix.
