McGuinness North West 200 Crash: Breaks Leg, Will Miss Isle of Man TT

John McGuinness North West 200 Crash

For many riders, one of the training precursors of the Isle of Man TT is the North West 200. Held on the nearly 9-mile “Triangle” in Norther Ireland, the North West 200 is one of the fastest international road races with top speeds over 200 mph and an average speed of over 120 mph.

One of the North West 200 faithful is the “Morecambe Missile” John McGuinness, who has six NW200 race wins. But luck wasn’t on McGuiness’s side during this year’s event.

While qualifying for the race on Thursday, the 23-time Isle of Man TT—only three shy of the record held by the late Joey Dunlop—suffered a hectic crash at the Primrose hill section of the track about 20 minutes before the session ended.

The Honda Racing CBR1000RR pilot sustained a compound fracture to his lower right leg, four broken vertebrae and three broken back ribs.

McGuinness, 45, 26 of those in racing, was taken to Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital, where doctors were unable to plate the leg due to the extent of the injury. Doctors will continue working on the leg this weekend.

For the vertebrae injury, McGuinness was fitted with cast, which will be in place for up to six weeks. This will cause McGuinness to miss the 2017 Isle of Man TT, which begins with practice on May 27, and ends June 9.

McGuinness will remain at the hospital for a week before heading home.

As for the bike, Honda Racing says the team will analyze the bike and ECU data. Due to McGuinness’ crash, Honda has withdrawn all rider efforts, including teammate Guy Martin, from the Superstock and Superbike races of the North West 200.

Jonny Twelvetrees, Honda Racing Team Manager, says: “Unfortunately John’s incident at Primrose Hill during qualifying has resulted in quite a substantial injury to his right Tibia and Fibula. It is a real blow to John and the team, but he’s got an incredible amount of spirit and is in very good hands with the medical staff at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

“We now need to determine what happened and will sit out the Superstock and Superbike races, get back to Louth to analyze John’s bike and re-group ahead of our next test at Castle Combe in a couple of weeks before we head to the Isle of Man.”