Honda Legends rider John McGuinness endured a mixed bag of results at Saturday's Ulster Grand Prix with strong rides in the two Supersport races offset by misfortune in the Superbike events. His best result came in the opening Supersport race where he took a good sixth but he was looking good for a top five finish in the feature Superbike race only for a holed radiator to force him to retire on the final lap.
Returning to Dundrod for the first time since 2009, McGuinness placed inside the top 12 in all of the qualifying sessions with his best position being 8th on the Honda TT Legends machine in the Superbike class but after Thursday's Dundrod 150 Superbike race was cancelled due to rain, he had to wait until Saturday for his first race.
Conditions were again patchy to begin with so McGuinness rode a sensible race in the 6-lap Superstock event to finish 10th on his regular Padgetts Honda machine and he then switched to the Supersport bike for his first outing on the 600 since the TT. It proved to be his best result of the day and a series of 124mph+ laps saw him finish in a more than strong sixth place.
It was then on to the feature Superbike race where McGuinness was part of a four-strong group battling for second place after Bruce Anstey surprised them all from the second wave to lead on time. There was little to choose between McGuinness, Guy Martin, Gary Johnson and team-mate Keith Amor but, after lapping at close to 131mph,his fine ride, and any hopes of a podium finish, were ended on the final lap when a stone kicked up by one of the riders in front of him put a hole in the radiator and forced him to retire at Deer's Leap.
Undeterred, the Morecambe man was then back out on the Supersport machine where it looked like he'd secured another sixth place after battling with Anstey and Amor only for the duo to sweep by on the final third of the lap, pushing him back to eighth. It looked like his day was over as the Honda TT Legends team were unable to repair the Superbike machine in time for the second race start but the organisers allowed John to take to the track at the back of the field and, despite the time lost, he fought his way through the pack to claim a well-earned 17th place, entertaining the hordes of road racing fans in the process.
“It's been a bit of a mixed bag for me today but I've enjoyed the racing and it's been good to be back at Dundrod. The Superstock race was a bit patchy so I rode at a pace I was happy with whilst the 600 races went really well and I was happy with both how I was riding and the results. We just lost the tow to the leading group and if it wasn't for that, I'm sure I could have run with them as the lap times were very similar. It was a bit more difficult on the big bike and having not ridden one here since 2007 it took me a while to find my feet and get up to the pace of the other riders," said McGuinness.
"By the time of the first Superbike race though I wasn't far away and I was really enjoying it, going as fast as the leaders and running right with them. On the last lap though, the bike started to slow and I had to retire, which we later found out to be due to a hole in the radiator. We changed the engine and the radiator and the team did a mega job repairing it but we were just a few minutes too late to get on the grid so I spoke to the organiser and asked if could just go out at the back of the pack and show the fans that we didn’t come here not to do our job.
"I actually enjoyed it in a bizarre way, just riding round with no pressure and pulling a few wheelies just like Graeme Crosby did back in the 1980s so I had a bit of fun! Like I say, a mixed day but an enjoyable one and we'll be back again in 2012 and hope for a bit better fortune.”
It's now back to World Endurance duty for McGuinness with a two-day test session planned at Le Mans, France later this month.
