TT motorcycling stars Guy Martin and John McGuiness joined 1960s works rider Tommy Robb at a question-and-answer night at Grappenhall and District Ex-Servicemen’s Club, near Warrington.
There was a sell-out crowd at the fundraiser for the TT Riders’ Association charity organised by Grappenhall’s Geoff 
Kelly and his brother Pete.
Geoff told the crowd: “I hope neither racer here has to draw from this fund because it is for TT riders who face serious injury or succumb to other problems later in life.”
Guy Martin knows how close he came to needing the charity. On the third lap of the Senior Race in 2010 he left his bike at over 190 mph at Glen Vine in a ball of flames.
He broke several ribs, bruised his lungs, fractured two of his vertebrae and twisted both of his ankles.
But he was back the following year for the release of the TT3D movie “Closer to the Edge” in which he starred and his crash was featured.
John McGuiness said that he had just flown in from Japan and after the fundraiser he would be catching a 2am ferry sailing to the Isle of Man for his stag night.
He then revealed that he is targeting the first 100mph lap of the Mountain Course on an electric bike after announcing he will compete in this year’s TT Zero race.
Nicknamed the Morecambe Missile, the 17-times TT winner will pilot Team Mugen’s 120-horsepower Mugen EV machine in the one-lap race.
If he achieves the 100mph “electric” lap he will collect a prize of £10,000.
During the evening, Stockton Heath artist Rick Lawton presented the two riders with framed sketches of themselves.
Pictured: Artist Rick Lawton with John McGuiness and Guy Martin
TT stars ride in for charity
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
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This was a great evening and Geoff Kelly put a tremendous amount of effort in making it such a success. It was also good to see Rick (the Artist) Lawton producing copies of his original work which were sold and autographed during the evening by John and Guy- all monies going to the Riders Association Charity.
We leant a lot about the riders and their highly competitive approach to racing.
It was great to see Guy Martin up and about after being at the race when he had his horrific crash.
I was there on the day on the other side of the course working as a TT marshal. The red flag is not one that anyone wants to see and knowing that he survived is a testimony to the training that marshals receive and the incredible speed of the emergency services to get riders to Nobel’s Hospital for treatment.
If anyone wants to know more about becoming a marshal then they can go onto their web site http://www.iomttma.com/ or send me an email via [email protected]