John McGuinness says he still has the passion for the "most demanding, difficult, hardest, physical track in the world" as qualifying for the Isle of Man TTs gets under way.
The motorcycle legend from Morecambe spoke about his career, when he appeared as a guest on James Martin's Saturday Morning cookery show on ITV1 just days before taking on the world famous island road race once again.
McGuinness, known as 'The Morecambe Missile', has 23 wins around the TT course, making him third on the all-time list of winners.
At the age of 52, he has no intention of retiring.
And on Monday, day one of this year's Isle of Man event, he showed he still has the speed as he placed fourth in qualifying for the Superbike race.
A few days earlier, as celebrity chef James Martin, himself a huge motorcycle fan, cooked pizza for him on the popular Saturday morning programme, 'the King of the Mountain' talked about his love for the TTs.
"It's a little bit of muscle memory, I've always kept riding, kept training and kept motivated, and it is a really special place to race," he said.
"I have to pinch myself that it's really really happening.
"When I was a young kid I had some amazing team-mates. Joey Dunlop, the most successful TT rider of all-time, was my team-mate, and he was 48 years old, I looked at him and he was an old codger! I'm 52 and still at it.
"You can still do it if you want to do it. I still have the passion for it. I've still got the hunger for it and I still love putting the helmet on and riding those amazing super bikes around the most demanding, difficult, hardest, physical track in the world.
"It's an amazing circuit, probably the longest circuit in the world, probably the hardest, toughest, probably the most dangerous.
"38 miles long, 260 corners, the lap record now is 136mph average. 2007 I broke the 130mph, the first man to do 131."
This mural dedicated to John can be found on the wall of Colin Brown's hairdressers on Victoria Street in Morecambe town centre.
John, who debuted at the TTs in 1996, told Martin about how his love of motorcycles came through his dad, also a biker.
"He did some road racing, scrambling it was called at the time, and we had a motorcycle shop in Morecambe," he said.
"He took me to the Isle of Man when I was 10 years old, to the TT, and I watched those riders coming down that hill and thought, wow, these guys are amazing, and always wanted to do it.
"I had a AP50 Suzuki, a little 50cc moped when I was 16, I used to go to school on it and dream of being a professional motorbike racer."
Qualifying for this year's TTs got under way on Monday, with McGuinness also placing ninth in Superstock qualifying for Honda Racing.
The main races begin on Saturday, June 1 and run until the following Saturday June 8, culminating with the six-lap Seniors race, which McGuinness has won on seven occasions.
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