Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness says rekindling his relationship with Honda in 2022 was like “slipping on an old pair of slippers” a🍷fter quitting the team i🍷n 2017.

McGuinness has💮 a storied history with the Japanese brand, having taken his first TT victory in the 1999 Lightweight race back in 1999.

In total, McGuinness ha🐼s won 15 of his 23 TTs aboard Honda machinery.

But the relationship with the brand soured in 2017 in the wake of his serious incident at that year’s North West 200,ܫ which ruled him out of the TT for two years.

When he r🎃eturned to racing in 2019, he did so with the Norton squad, though unreliable and uncompetitive machinery blighted his campaign.

Having signed up to race with Kawasaki🍸 before the COVID pandemic struck, McGuinness ultimately rekindled his relationship with Honda when the TT returned in 2022.

Since then, the now 53-year-old𝓡 has enjoyed solid form, with a fifth-place finish in the 2022 Superbike TT and a fifth i🐎n last year’s Senior TT.

, McGuinness said of his most recent stint with Honda: “The Honda relationship in 2017 went a little bit pear-shaped and it was sort of like getting divorced when you didn’t want to, if that makes sense.

“There was a lot of stuff ♋going on at that time and it was a hard time, you know.

“For me, it was quite tough because I’d been 🍨in such a [winning] rhythm for so long.

“I made that decision to ride the Norton which in hindsight proꦐbably wasn’t the best decision, then I was going to go Kawasaki, then COVID; sometimes the stars just line up and it was meant to be for m♒e to be back at Honda I think.

“That’s the top and bottom of it and it was like slipping on an old pair of slippers I suppo꧙se.”

McGuinness notched up his 100th TT start in 2022, which Honda celebrated with a limited edition Fireblade, and will enter his 🌳35th season of racing in 2025.