Glenn I♌rwin knew his time on the roads was coming to an end after a frank ꦐconversation with John McGuinness.

Irwin wil꧃l retire from road racing in 2025 citing prioritising his young family.

He ha🎉s won the past 11 Superbike races at the North West 200 and competed at the Isle of Man TT once, two years ago.

“It’s hard at the Isle꧒ of Man,” Irwin confessed at .

“You have breakfast in the 🍌morning. Ther꧒e were a lot of documentary cameras around the house. And I’m looking at my son and you don’t know if you’re going to have dinner with him.

“As much as riding the bike is amazing to me, it’s not worth having that feeling. It’sꦺ genuinely what you feel.

“I said to John McGuinness, the brain ওis saying ‘why are you doing this’ and the heart is saying ‘you love to be here’🍬.

“He said you just get used to i🥂t because that feeling is not going to go away, it’d been like that for him for 20-odd years. But hearing that was the point that I said this isn’t for me.

“You’re a human being. I think people look at moto🔜rcycle racers like we’re Power Range🤪rs.

“But we have the same thoughts as everyone else here. I guess it’s maybe like going 🥀into war? Probably excited, but anxious. You get it when you go road rac𓆏ing.

“Thankfully 🔯we’v🌞e had a lot of success, we’re all happy we’ve won. Usually when the week’s over, me, the team owners, and mechanics, we’re all happy we’re coming home. Maybe that’s part of the addiction of road racing.”

Jordan Biꦦrd of PBM Ducati added: “I think it’s important to know when you’ve got what you want out of something. For us, as a team with🎐 Glenn, we’ve achieved what we wanted.

“And I think quit while you’re ahead. No, not e🔜ven quit, but finish at꧙ the top.

“And as far as I’m concerned if Glenn doesn’t want to do the North West, then we won’t be there. It’s his bike, it’s his team. We’re 💙all there for him. I’m happy with the deci🔯sion he made, and it came at the right time as well.”

Bird described the nerves of watching Irwin on the roads: “As a woman I’m a bit of a control freak.💯 I do everything that I can off track, and then it’s down to Glenn after that.

“The nerves are very, very different in road racing. It was actually my first North West, it was always a boy’s trip, s♑o I was never on that one before. But the nerves are definitely very different.

“It’s sort of an elephant in the room that nobody ever speaks about. We all know exactly how 🍎everybody is feeling, but it’s a f🧸eeling that if you could bottle it up and sell it, you’d be very, very rich.”

Irwin ends his🤪 road racing career with a legen🔯dary CV.

His triple-win at Oulton Park, his record-breওaking at the North West 200, and appearances at Mꦺacau and the Isle of Man TT will live long in the memory.

“That week we won three races at Oulton Park and went to the North West and won s🧸ix races in six days,” Irwin remembered.

“I nearlಌy bankrupted the team with the💮 bonus money!

2That was an amazing week💦, and it was only roun🦩d two or three of Jordan and Frank running the team full time, we’d done Navarra and the next six races we won. We won a further race at Donington a week later, and we’d won seven out of nine races in two weeks. An incredible achievement.

“My roads career was a lot of stuff that I never dreamed of. I never t💝hought I’d compete at the Isle of Man TT. But as a dad that wasn’t something I wanted t♈o continue.

“The North West 200 is where I kind of made my name. I had elev🅺en consecutive victories; eight with Ducati, eight with P📖BM, three on the v-twin, and five on the V4 R.

“We also went to Macau together and set the fastest ever lap, and won ♛Macau. Great achievements. Way more than I ever thought, I never thought I’d🍒 even turn a wheel in road racing and thanks to Jordan, Frank, to Paul, and everyone at PBM, we wrote history together.

“To step out and ꦿlook back at what we achieved is a really nice feeling.”