Ten-time Isle of Man TT winner and veteran of over 40 years of racing, Ian Lougher, has formally announced his retirement from active competition.<\/p>\n
The Welsh race made his Isle of Man debut in 1983 at the Manx Grand Prix, where he achieved a maiden podium, before making his TT debut the following year.<\/p>\n
Again taking to the podium, doing so in the Historic 500cc race, Lougher would eventually score his first TT victory in 1990 in the Junior race following a duel with Steve Hislop.<\/p>\n
Lougher would go on to win 10 TTs in total, with the veteran showing particular skill with two-stroke machinery during his career.<\/p>\n
Making 136 TT starts, scoring 10 victories and 29 podiums, as well as success at the Classic TT – including a rostrum this year in the Lightweight race – Lougher retires as one of the most well-respected racers to have competed on the Isle of Man.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
He will remain involved in racing on the island following his riding career, as he transitions to team ownership and management with ILR.<\/p>\n
The 62-year-old said in a heartfelt statement: \u201cForty four seasons is a long, long time to still be racing, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
\u201cI never imagined after that first outing in 1983 that I\u2019d still be competing more than four decades later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about retirement for quite a while, but kept it to myself \u2014 I didn\u2019t even tell Asa, my wife \u2014 because I thought it might be unlucky.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always said I\u2019d keep racing as long as I was competitive, and I like to think I\u2019ve managed that. I\u2019m not one for just riding around at the back.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 62 now, and while I still don\u2019t get nervous going through the bottom of Bray Hill at 140mph, you can\u2019t go on forever, and I don\u2019t want to put my old body through any more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a few aches and pains – mostly the knees – not that I\u2019ve crashed too much really, maybe I\u2019ve just been lucky!<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had the privilege to race against so many great riders and meet some of the best people in the sport, and not many get to do that. Racing has literally been my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith ILR Racing, I\u2019ll still have my hand in – maybe even the odd few laps in the name of testing – but now it\u2019s time to focus on the next generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always tried to surround myself with the right people, the right machinery, and the right attitude to keep safe and competitive.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful to everyone who\u2019s supported me along the way, and to those closest to me for putting up with my single-mindedness over the years. It\u2019s been an incredible journey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten-time Isle of Man TT winner and veteran of over 40 years of racing, Ian Lougher, has formally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,28425,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-213266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-road-racing","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}