RACING: 8 racers who just can’t stop

1. John McGuinness
With 23 Isle of Man TTs under his belt, an external fixator cage screwed to his leg and at age 46th, it’s probably time for John McGuinness to admire his trophies, count his losses and give the game away. But the Morecambe Missile has now inked a deal with another brand synonymous with the TT, Norton Motorcycles, with who he’ll campaign the 2018 Superbike and Senior TT events. “I feel a lot sharper and my head is in gear and ready to go,” McGuinness said. “The plan is to get the external fixator cage off my leg by the end of this month and after that we can start working towards getting bike fit and test-ing.” The last time John McGuinness stood on the top step of a petrol-powered TT podium was in 2015 when he claimed the blue-riband Senior TT, posting his fastest lap ever of the Mountain Course with a 132.701mph.

2. Graham Jarvis
It was 1992 when off-road legend Graham Jarvis lined up and won his first race in 1985 when he was 10 years old, and he recently won his last. And not just any race: Jarvis won the notoriously difficult (and aptly named) The Tough Won as part of the British Hard Enduro series. Hard Enduro is where the 42-year-old prefers to play these days, in probably the toughest off-road series in the world. It’s where rac-es run for days instead of minutes and mental toughness is arguably more important than physical fit-ness. As well as his five British trials championships, he’s won the gruelling Erzberg Rodeo three times, the gnarly Red Bull Romaniacs an unprecedented six times and conquered the arduous Hells Gate an impressive five times from his last seven attempts. And he doesn’t look like slowing down.

3. Toni Elias
Toni Elias won a hard-fought and highly political 2017 MotoAmerica superbike title. Nineteen seasons ago he made his debut in the 125cc Grand Prix category and 11 seasons after that he became the first rider ever to be crowned Moto2 world champion. Before that though, he’s fought, and won, against the very best. In 2006 he went head-to-head against Valentino Rossi at the 2006 Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril, pipping the Italian legend to the line in a race which would ultimately cost Rossi the 2006 world title. It was Elias’ first and only MotoGP win from well over 100 starts in the premier-category, but it’s a long way from telling the whole story. He celebrated on the top step of a grand prix podium a total of 17 times in 125cc, 250cc, Moto2 and MotoGP and was active in the championship for 14 consecutive seasons between 1999 and 2013 before switching the Superbike World Championship for the last half of 2013 as well as the 2014 season. Last season, aged 34, he became the first Spanish rider to win the American Superbike Championship.

4. Anthony West
Anthony West will celebrate his 37th birthday this year, possessing as much if not more drive and de-termination to win a world title as he did when he made his 125cc grand prix debut in 1998. Since then he’s had a long grand prix career with varying levels of success; his first Grand Prix win came in 2002 in Assen on 250cc GP machinery, in a year where he scored four podiums and looked on a trajectory to more success. But from his 238 starts across 125cc, 250cc, 500cc, Moto2 and MotoGP categories, the Aussie from Queensland would only celebrate two wins – 12 years apart. As well as 42 starts across both the world supersport and superbike categories, it’s been the last two years where West’s desire to race motorcycles has been most apparent. In the past 12 months alone, West has turned up racing in domestic and world championships in all corners of the globe. He’s raced in the American superbike and superstock titles, the Russian championship, the Asian Road Racing Championship, he was drafted in to replaced injured riders in both the world Superbike and supersport championships, he raced the Suzuka 8 Hour and more often than not, to use his own words, he did it with his “last 10 euros”.
For 2018, he back at it again, this time fielding a self-funded ZX-6R in the World Supersport category with support from a recent Dutch sponsor named Ferry Shoenmakers.

5. Greg Hancock
Greg Hancock was racing in the Speedway Grand Prix series well before Valentino Rossi made his debut in the 125cc World Championship. During the last 23 consecutive seasons, Greg Hancock has lined up at the tape of 1187 world championship heats, claimed 437 heat wins, has made the final 88 times to finish on the podium 66 times of which 21 of those were hard-fought wins. At the end of the 2015 sea-son, his 22 years of hard work culminated in his fourth world title, crowned right here on Aussie soil at the season finale. In July 2017, the 47-year-old speedway great Greg Hancock dislocated his shoulder three times in three days and withdrew from the 2017 season. No word of retirement, though, oh no. “My focus now is on getting my shoulder fixed as soon as possible and working hard on my recovery so I can come back Greg Hancock 100 per cent fit and ready for another big season.” He’ll be 48 years old.

6. Marco Melandri
World superbike factory Ducati rider Marco Melandri made his 125cc GP debut in 1997, before embark-ing on his first full season the following year. Now, 20 years later, the 35-year-old Italian is about to line up in the 2018 WorldSBK curtain raiser as one of just a handful of race win favourites. He enjoyed 17 podiums in his two years in the 125cc Grand Prix category, seven of them wins, before moving to the intermediate category where his talent gained momentum with a further 25 podiums, 10 of them victo-ries, to claim the 250cc world title in 2002. He was promoted to the premier class in 2003 but struggled to find his feet in the category until 2005 when he finished runner-up to Valentino Rossi. Two more sea-sons of podiums and top-10 places (and who can forget the one-handed power slide to victory at Phillip Island in 2006) earned him a berth in the Factory Ducati squad in 2008 alongside Australia’s Casey Stoner where, when unable to achieve the same results as his teammate was shuffled off to psycholo-gist and eventually out of the team. Ironically, after a three-year racing hiatus, Melandri found himself back under the wing of Ducati Corse.

7. Troy Bayliss
Australia’s two-time World Superbike champ Troy Bayliss is, to this day, the ninth oldest bloke in history to have won a premier-class Grand Prix. Aged 37 years and 213 days, Bayliss won the 2006 season finale in Valencia in spectacular fashion. And that happened 12 years ago. These days, he’s still at it and the 2018 season will see the road racing veteran campaign a Ducati 1299 Panigale in the Australian Su-perbike Championship as he chases the one title which has so far eluded him. “Initially, I did want to see another young guy on the bike, but after I rode it I felt that I needed to contest the championship and try and win myself the elusive Australian Superbike title,” Bayliss said. “I have some unfinished business.” He turns 49 in March 2018.

8. Valentino Rossi
When Valentino Rossi won the 2017 Assen TT last this season he was 65 days older than Mike Hailwood was when he recorded his historic Isle of Man TT win in his famous 1978 comeback. Thirty-eight is an age one would normally associate to a motorcycle racing comeback, but the only comeback Valentino Rossi has had of late is his record-breaking time between suffering a double fracture in his right leg and coming back to race. There are far too many records to mention, but his longevity in the sport is un-precedented. His Assen win extended his winning span across all three classes to 20 years, 10 months and 11 days, having tasted his first victory at the 1996 Czech Grand Prix. To put that into perspective, Valentino Rossi won his first Grand Prix when ECSTAR Suzuki rider Alex Rins was just nine months old. His teammate Maverick Viñales had just turned one and Jack Miller may or may not have just started crawling. Not only is Valentino Rossi’s longevity in the sport remarkable, but 22 years later he’s a de-termined, as focussed and as competitive as he’s ever been to take his world championship tally to a perfect 10.