Isle of Man hero John McGuinness will put crash in the opening Metzeler National Superstock 1000 round last weekend behind him when he leads the Honda TT Legends team out for their opening World Endurance foray at the Bol d'Or on Friday.

The Morecambe man, who turns 40 next week, has Simon Andrews, Cameron Donald and Gary Johnson alongside him and three of the four will ride in the 24-hour race, with participants dictated by laptimes but McGuinness is under no illusion how hard it will be.

"I feel much more confident than this time last year. I am still nervous without a doubt and I’m far from being an experienced endurance rider, but at least I know what lies ahead and just how hard it’s going to be. This is one of the most difficult races of the season and the competition is tough. Having said that, we are in a stronger position now with the bike and the team and hopefully we can build on the work we did last year to improve and get near the podium," he said.