Kettering’s pure road racer James McBride has decided to bow out of the sport he loves whilst on a high. In 2010 he won the inaugural Isle of Man TT Privateer’s Championship and amongst other superb achievements throughout last season he joined the elusive 130mph club at the Ulster Grand Prix.

McBride was awarded a commemorative 130mph medal at the Adelaide Motorcycle Festival in Belfast last weekend by road race legend Raymond McCullough. With a plethora of 2010 results under his belt McBride felt it was time to step back and let this be the final accolade.

McBride said: “I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while but I made my decision whilst travelling back home from the Belfast Bike Show. I have been truly really humbled and flattered by my Irish fans and sponsor support from the weekend but after receiving my award I felt it was time to retire my own efforts.”  

This doesn’t mean James is hanging up his leathers he is still keen to take part in the racing he loves, and should a suitable team offer appear from a competitive team looking to employ a very capable racer  he would certainly consider it. However running himself and keeping the team at a high level is a big job and one he wants to back off from.

He said: “To improve on last season’s riding I would almost certainly need a stronger budget and dedication from everyone involved, but life is getting busy right now in a number of ways and to retire my own personal efforts would free me up to cope. However it would allow room for improvement to my own riding performance with much less energy and focus spent on managing a team and more time to focus purely on my racing.  So be it if I don’t get to race much in 2011 but I am currently enjoying riding Enduro on my 450 Yamaha regularly and I will still structure a return to Macau in November.”

To better his 2010 season would take a lot of time and investment in new machinery as well as plenty of organisation to ensure McBride can perform at the high level he is used to. So as things currently stand McBride will be stepping out of the lime light and spending time with partner Dorothy and daughter Molly.

James would like to take this opportunity to thank all of his sponsor’s friends and family members whom have helped him achieve all the successes racing has to offer. These people have stood by from the early days in 1998 with the Club Championships which he won, to the lows of 2000 and 2008 where he was side lined through injury and now to the heights of 2010.

McBride finished on this note: “Without my sponsors, some of whom are no longer with us, today wouldn’t be so poignant in terms of racing for 13 consecutive seasons. Racing became an interest back then but spare money just wasn’t available and it took three to four years before support came along. I’m very grateful to anyone who has helped with costs or support from day one to year 13. I salute you all....”