Motorbikes

Image source, Pacemaker

Northern Ireland riders Scott Swann and David Allingham both claimed wins at the latest round of the National Superstock 1000cc series at Knockhill at the weekend.

Swann won Saturday's opening race on his Honda, ahead of Luke Mossey and BMW-mounted Allingham.

Sunday's race two saw Allingham emerge the victor, with Mossey again runner-up and Swann completing the podium places on that occasion.

After the third round of races, Allingham leads the series standings on 95 points, followed by Mossey on 82 and Swann third with 65.

Meanwhile Glenn Irwin was unable to repeat his podium finish on Saturday in Sunday's races but he did pick up some further points to add to his season total when he took sixth in the third race of the weekend in Scotland.

Race two saw defending champion Kyle Ryde take victory from Brad Ray and Scott Redding, while PBM Ducati rider Redding took the chequered flag in race three, ahead of Ray and Ryde.

Ryde heads the championship standings on 154 points, followed by Redding on 133. Glenn Irwin sits eighth on 61.

The next round of races will be at Snetterton from 3-5 July.

Meanwhile Michael Sweeney won the Grand Final at the Kells road races in county Meath as part of a hat-trick of victories at the meeting.

Manx rider Marcus Simpson was second in the feature event, with Kevin Keyes third.

Skerries man Sweeney also won the Open race and the Supertwins outing.

Keyes edged out Sweeney in a thrilling finish to the Supersport event.

Stephen Watson
BBC Sport NI lead presenter

Phillip McCallen's record at the Isle of Man TT places him among the most successful road racers of all time.

Yet his career is equally defined by the scale of the injuries he survived - and the determination with which he returned to racing despite them.

Speaking to the BBC Bikes podcast at this year's TT, the 62-year-old reflected on a decade at the top of the sport in which he claimed 11 victories at the event while overcoming a catalogue of serious injuries.

He won four races in a week at the 1996 TT and holds the record for the number of individual race wins in a day at both the North West 200 and Ulster Grand Prix, with five at each.

Over the course of his career, McCallen suffered three fractured skulls, repeated shoulder breaks, a shoulder blade torn from his back, a broken back, a damaged pelvis, broken legs, broken arms, and severe injuries to both feet.

"There's very little I didn't break," he says. "I've been beaten to bits at times, but I always believed I'd be back on a bike," said McCallen.

One of the most serious incidents came at the Temple 100 in 1990. A heavy crash left McCallen unconscious, haemorrhaging behind the face and temporarily blind.

"My eyes filled with blood from the inside," he recalls.

"I couldn't see at all - nothing. Then bit by bit, the sight came back."

His face swelled dramatically due to internal bleeding, but he returned to racing as soon as doctors allowed. "I never thought, 'that's me finished.' Not once."

At the 1997 TT, McCallen was involved in one of the most dramatic crashes of his career. Battling five times world champion Joey Dunlop in the 250 race, he approached Quarry Bends at around 150mph when the bike tucked at high speed.

He slid across tarmac, kerbs, and grass, suffering deep friction burns as his leathers tore open.

"I could hear the crowd as I slid," he says. "You're calculating everything - what you might hit, where you might end up. The brain works faster than any computer."

His shoulder and arm were severely damaged, and he was left "very badly beaten up," as he puts it.

Despite this, McCallen passed a medical assessment two days later, completing press ups with one arm, and went on to finish second in Wednesday's 600 race before winning both Friday events including the blue riband Senior TT.

"I just needed 24 hours hidden away to repair the body," he says. "Sports people know how to fix themselves when they have to."

His injuries extended far beyond the Mountain TT Course. At Daytona in 1992, a front tyre failure at top speed ripped his shoulder blade from his back.

"The tyre exploded and cut the brake pipes clean off. I had no brakes at all. I hit the barrier and that was the shoulder blade gone."

At the Ulster Grand Prix, McCallen landed on a rock during a crash, splitting the same shoulder blade into three pieces. At the North West 200, he seriously damaged his foot as he slid along the road after a crash. "That was the end of my North West that year," he continued. "I'd ripped the side clean out of the foot."

McCallen believes the drive to return was rooted in instinct rather than bravado. "You don't think about stopping," he explains. "You think about how to get fit enough to race again. That is just the mindset."

Despite the severity of his injuries, he insists he never believed the sport would claim his life.

"I genuinely never once thought I would die racing."

Looking back, McCallen says the risks were outweighed by the rewards. "People would give their right arm to stand on that TT podium once. I was fortunate enough to stand 11 times."