It was officially confirmed this morning that former MotoGP superstar Jeremy McWilliams will once again be returning to Australia for the 25th running of the Phillip Island Classic.
Next year will mark McWilliams’ eighth participation at this iconic event and he will once again be the leading rider for the United Kingdom in the four-race International Challenge, which will also feature teams from the host nation as well as New Zealand and America.
McWilliams, 53, has racked up a total of 28 International Challenge races. Out of those 28 races, the Northern Irishman has finished inside the top three on 24 occasions – 8 wins, 13 seconds and 3 thirds.
On top of that, McWilliams has managed to guide his #99 Team Winfield Yamaha Harris F1 to three pole positions (2011, 2015, and 2017).
McWilliams has also won the prestige Ken Wootton Perpetual Trophy, awarded to the highest individual point-scorer in the International Challenge, four times: twice stand alone, and the same number alongside former three times Australian Superbike champion, Shawn Giles in 2014 and Jed Metcher in 2016.
McWilliams and Team GB will be looking to make it four International Challenge wins in a row next year, after having knocked off the Aussies in 2015, 2016 and this year.
The four International Challenge teams will be announced in coming weeks. However, Australia and America have already announced that double World Superbike champions Troy Corser and Colin Edwards will be making their debuts in the event, which takes place on the last weekend of January.
Adding to the extravagant of next year’s International Island Classic is fifteen times world champion, Giacomo Agostini.
The 75-year-old Italian is returning to the ‘Island’ for the first time in five years, and he’ll be joined by a quartet of world championship-winning four-stroke MV Agustas, including two that he piloted: a three-cylinder 500 and four-cylinder 350.
