HUTCHY: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
2018 TT, With just weeks togo before the down Glencrutchery Hutchy’s chances of blasting Road are looking pretty bleak.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or simply don’t give a damn about the TT, the name Ian Hutchinson should be well and truly smacked on your radar. Endearingly known as the ‘Bingley Bullet’, the soft spoken Yorkshireman remains the first and only person to have taken all five TT wins in a single year, back in 2010. And despite horrifically breaking his leg later that season during a BSB round at Silverstone, which demanded countless operations, fixators and pleading with doctors not to cut off his blackening and blood deprived lower left leg, he somehow overcame the odds to look every bit set for a return to the Mountain Course that very next season. Or at least before a freak 5mph accident on a trail bike turned his world upside down once more.
But while most others might have accepted fate and given up on his chances of ever walking, let alone racing again, Hutchy and his skilled surgeon Matija Krkovic, went all out to fix the unfixable. And with some incredible talent, commitment and bloody mindedness, not to mention numerous setbacks along the way, incredibly, Hutchy’s leg remained in place.
Better still, after taking time to recuperate and adapting to a right side gear shift, Hutchy’s successful racing comeback, bagging third place at the 2011 Macau GP, had many a rider, fan and team owner eating their hat. And ever since the wins have been flowing in, cranking his TT tally of wins up to 16 at last year’s TT, before disaster struck in the Senior TT for the then Tyco BMW rider on the second lap at the 27th Milestone up on the Mountain when he crashed.
Remaining conscious and with the Silverstone episode emblazoned on his mind, Hutchy instinctively shuffled himself out of the firing line just as another rider rounded the blind bend. “I felt really comfortable and I was dicing with Peter Hickman for the lead. We’d not had a pit stop and I knew how good my team were in the pits. As I went into the corner, I did nothing differently on that lap than I’d done on lap one, but the bike didn’t want to tip in for some reason.
“The front then folded on me but it’s not a place you’d expect to crash at. When I’d stopped sliding I saw my left leg around my head so that didn’t look right to me. I got out of the way as I knew another rider would be coming and I just sat there on the side of the road. I sat there and no one came. I was shouting to ask if any marshals were there and eventually, after what seemed like ages, two arrived. They called over the radio for the air ambulance and again, it seemed to take forever for it to come. Then the travelling marshal arrived, and I heard him call for a red flag, so I pricked my ears up.
I thought if I could get back to the Grandstand and the boys could fix the bike, I could take the restart! But clearly that wasn’t going to happen as I headed for Nobles Hospital before being transferred over to Liverpool.”
It was his left leg again and although the fragile ankle had taken another battering, it was his left femur that had broken. It was a bad break too, another compound job, which in typical Hutchinson fashion, wasn’t straightforward.
So, eight TT wins in three years came to an abrupt halt on the Manx mountainside and left Hutchy facing yet another battle against adversity to repair and rehabilitate his left leg. An external fixator was installed to aid the recovery process, and eight months and six further operations on, it’s still in place, leaving his participation at the 2018 TT in doubt. One of the hardest bastards ever to race a motorcycle was back to square one. Or so it would seem… Time for a change Never one to quit at the first hurdle, Hutchy surprised many fans and rivals by signing to ride for Honda this season. Of course, this meant walking away from a successful partnership with Ulster-based TAS (Temple Auto Salvage) team, with Hector and Philip Neill at the helm, with sponsors Tyco backing their ultra-competitive BMWs. It had proved a fruitful pairing all-round for both the rider and team during 2016 and ’17, but after the TT crash, there was a lot of thinking to do, which ultimately led to a change of team.
“Philip and I hadn’t really spoken about this year, everyone just assumed it was happening. We were at the final round of the BSB Championship at Brands Hatch, so it was quite late in the season when we got to talk about it. Philip sent me over the contract for 2018 in early November and I went to print it off but realised my printer was out of ink so didn’t get around to doing it. He kept chasing me but then I got a phone call from Jonny Twelvetrees at Honda. We kept in touch and that put me under a bit of pressure because it was the week of the NEC bike show and BMW were wanting to announce their rider line-up, including me of course. I ended up doing a deal with Honda, but it was all a bit rushed and not done very well PR-wise, so I tried ringing Philip to tell him, but he had his phone switched off for the next three days!”
It has to be said, the brand new Honda Fireblade’s introduction on the scene in 2017 didn’t go exactly as the Japanese bosses planned. McGuinness crashed and knocked himself out at the Castle Combe test, and Guy Martin’s increasingly busy schedule of being the nation’s favourite truck fitting TV star meant he didn’t get that many miles before the traditional season opener at the North West 200. Over at Portrush, Martin ended up parking the big bikes up, saying he wasn’t happy with them but in fairness, he didn’t look happy on the smaller ones too on the track he’d publicly slated a couple of years previously. He crashed at Doran’s Bend at the TT and was lucky to get away with it and that was that, instant retirement. And as we all know, prior to that, McGuinness ended up on the Portstewart golf course with a smashed leg, courtesy of a throttle that thought it should still be open when he’d clearly shut off.
So why on earth would Hutchy want to jump ship from an established and experienced team with a proven race winning bike to one which had potentially ended one or perhaps two top TT riders’ careers?
“I went through what happened to John’s bike with the Honda technicians and it was as clear as day what the problem was, and it’s one that could never happen again. If there was anything wrong with the bike, I wouldn’t have signed to ride it.
“I’d ridden for Honda when Neil Tuxworth was in charge back in 2007 but over the past few years, I’ve never really been in a position for them to offer me anything what with my injuries. So it was just something that never happened. Honda has an incredible record at
the TT and I felt I needed a change. Their results last year looked a lot worse than they were what with John’s accident and then Guy had a crap North West and TT. Guy’s decision to retire had nothing to do with the bike, he ended his own career as his pace was nowhere near fast enough. I’ve spent a lot of time talking with John, especially having similar injuries, and I know his version of events. I’ve tried to help him so when the deal came about, he was the first person I called. It wasn’t a case of taking his ride because at the time there was still a ride there for John, it was up to him whether he wanted it or not.”
The thing that confused the job was John saying that he didn’t want to ride a superbike again but that was probably the painkillers talking.
The rivals
Since that initial natter with John a lot has changed and despite the hype surrounding the 23 times TT winner’s injuries, he’s since signed to ride Norton’s superbike and also plans on racing alongside Michael Dunlop in the supersport class. It’s fair to say both announcements surprised a lot of people, but what did Hutchy make of it all? “Norton have been after a top rider for a long time
and approached me back in 2012 when the bike was in the very early stages of development. I met with them, but it was nothing like the bike it is now. After trying to do things for themselves, it’s now just an Aprilia engine in their own chassis but it has all the capabilities of winning so should do okay. I think John was struggling to get a 600cc ride and I know he’d spoken to my McAMS Yamaha team, but it costs an awful lot of money for just two races.” Hutchy continues: “Michael has said to John he’s going to build him a 600 but he hasn’t even built his own, he’s using a PTR bike from Simon Buckmaster, which won’t be cheap. I hear Carl Cox is involved and a few others so see what happens, but I think the media is making a lot out of it.”
There have been a few dramatic twists to the 2018 TT story in recent weeks, none more so than rumours that McGuinness has been hit by a big setback with his recovery, which might rule him out of contention altogether. And the other major talking point is news of Hutchinson’s arch rival Michael Dunlop hooking up with his old Tyco TAS team aboard a proven TT-winning BMW1000RR. We asked Hutchy for his take on that. “I’m not bothered what they do, it’s entirely up to them, and I don’t want to talk about them. I’m only interested in what I can influence, and they aren’t part of that.” Short and sweet and typical of the no-nonsense Yorkshire vernacular for which the softly-spoken rider exudes. When Hutchy isn’t happy, steer well clear…
The next step
One thing is for sure, as he’s proven so many times in the past and usually in the face of adversity, if there’s an inkling of a chance it can be done, Ian Hutchinson will do it; a broken leg he may have but certainly not a broken spirit, such is Hutchinson’s incredible resolve, which he continues to exude in inspirational fashion.
“In a few weeks’ time, I should be heading down Bray Hill on a 220bhp Superbike stood on the footpegs and currently I have a cage on my broken leg which is shorter than the other one.” So, the million-dollar question is will the 16-times winner be on the start line on the Glencrutchery Road at the end of May?
“We’ll have to wait and see...” comes back the answer. “I’m still doing all I physically can, but I can’t magic the f**king bone to grow and that’s what will determine the result. I’ve got some more X-rays this month and I’ve set my surgeons and medical teams a target of the end of April for the cage to come off. That’s what I’m working towards, I’m concentrating on my fitness in case it does all come off but there’s nothing more I can do. Strength-wise and fitness-wise, I’ll be ready, and it’s not as though I don’t know how to train with a cage on, I’ve had enough practice. It’s a bone, it’s nature and if it’s not ready, there’s nothing more I can do. I know what I need to do, I just hope my leg is going to be ready, I honestly don’t know whether it will be or not but we’ll find out I guess.”
It’s the latest chapter in an incredible story but just goes to show, that with singleminded determination, anything is possible and in Ian Hutchinson’s case, the miracles keep on happening. Simply, because he makes them happen.