One of the most successful Classic teams of recent years, Team Winfield, has confirmed its return to the Mountain Course in 2014 with an all-star three man attack on the Classic TT Races presented by Bennetts.
The team had mixed fortunes at the inaugural Classic TT in 2013 but Roger Winfield’s outfit will have one of the strongest teams on the Island in August with John McGuinness, Gary Johnson and the returning Ryan Farquhar riding in the Bennetts 500cc Classic TT and Motorsport Merchandise F1 Classic TT Races.
As per the 2013 event, 20 times TT winner McGuinness will contest the Bennetts 500cc Classic Race on board a 500cc Paton where he’ll be joined by Farquhar on an identical machine.
McGuinness will be hoping for better luck than he endured in 2013. Having shown early pace in qualifying, an electrical problem that plagued the team throughout much of qualifying returned on race day forcing him to retire from the race early on. Farquhar meanwhile has tremendous history with Winfield and the Paton machine having won the 500cc Classic Manx Grand Prix on no less than five occasions between 2007 and 2012.
37-year old Farquhar, who recently announced he was coming out of retirement to contest the Bikesocial.co.uk Lightweight TT Race, will also line up in the Motorsport Merchandise F1 Classic TT Race for Team Winfield where he’ll be joined by Brigg based rider Johnson. The duo will both compete on F1 Harris Yamaha’s with Johnson having ridden a similar machine in 2013, lapping at close to 118mph and running as high as third before being forced to retire.
Farquhar and Winfield also have previous form in the Classic Superbike category, the combination having won the corresponding race at the Manx in 2009 and 2011.
Commenting on his stellar line up for the Classic TT, team owner Roger Winfield said: “We are delighted with our riders for the Classic TT. We really enjoyed the first event last year despite not having much luck in the races themselves. But that is racing and we intend to come back stronger. I really felt for John who was desperate to win the 500cc Race last year. He’ll be the man to beat going back this time, but we have made his job a little bit harder, by recruiting Ryan to ride the other bike and his results on it in the past are there for all to see!”
He continued: “Gary did a superb job for us last year on the Yamaha. We have developed that bike significantly over the winter and both Gary and Ryan will have a race winning package for the F1 Race.”
