2012 Stars at Darley Race
Nineteen-time Isle of Man TT winnert John McGuinness was reunited with his TT-winning Honda TT Legends Fireblade for the annual Stars at Darley meeting last week.
McGuinness was in fine form around the 1.5-mile Darley Moor circuit, taking third in each of two legs to secure third overall.
With perfect conditions all weekend at the Derbyshire venue, McGuinness signalled his intentions in qualifying when he placed third on the grid, just 0.37s behind the pace-setting BMW of Barry Burrell, and with less than one second covering the top six riders.
The first 15-lap race saw McGuinness lead the field round at the end of the opening lap, teammate Gary Johnson slotting into second. A lap later, McGuinness still led, but Burrell and Peter Hickman were now up to 2nd and 3rd, and by lap four, they’d pushed McGuinness back to 3rd.
There was still less than two seconds between the trio at the end of lap five, but the race was soon stopped due to an incident involving Michael Pearson and the result declared.
The second 15-lap race went the full distance and McGuinness again grabbed the holeshot, with Hickman and Burrell 2nd and 3rd at the end of the first lap. Hickman squeezed ahead a lap later, with Burrell doing the same on lap three and they gradually eased away to leave McGuinness on his own in 3rd.
John McGuinness says: “I’ve been coming to the Stars meeting since 1998 and always support the event as best as I can so it’s been great to come to Darley again and put on a bit of a show.
“It was nice to get back out on the Honda TT Legends machine again and I can’t fault the performance of the bike this weekend. I gave it my all and I am pleased with my brace of 3rd place finishes.
“My pace and lap times were good and I pushed Barry and Peter as much as possible, but with them riding their bikes week in week out, it was a tall order to better them. I stuck with them in the early stages before they nosed ahead, but we weren’t a million miles away though and with some great weather, I think we all put on some good racing today.”
