Keith Amor - Photo Credit: Honda TT Legends
Keith Amor has announced his retirement from racing after injuries sustained over the last 12 months have failed to heal sufficiently. The Scotsman raced in the World Endurance Championship for Honda TT Legends last year as well competing at the Isle of Man TT, where he finished second overall in the TT Championship.
Amor suffered two crashes during the TT event which ultimately started the road to retirement. The first came at Quarterbridge during practice and another followed in the opening Supersport race, causing damage to Amor's shoulder. He returned to race at the Ulster Grand Prix but another crash aggravated the injury.
Although he may still be fit enough to ride motorcycles, Amor has decided to call it a day, feeling he wouldn't be able to do himself justice unless he was 100% fit.
“My decision has been a hard one and one I have agonised over for the last few months. I had major surgery to both shoulders in November with the right having to be totally reconstructed and the ligaments tightened in the left as well. I had a MRI scan today to check if the ops have been successful but the doc said it hadn't healed and I would need further surgery. So that's me done with racing. I was injured all of last year and I am not going to ride in that condition again. I am in racing to win and I want to be competitive, not just be out there to make up the numbers”
“I will be 40 this year and I have done a lot in racing in a short time. “I started my career in 2001 at Knock hill with an orange bib at a Kirkcaldy club meeting as a novice and ended it 10 years later as a member of Honda Europe's TT Legends team. I didn’t race any roads at all until 2005 and I only went full-time in 2007. A lot of hard work went into getting here for it all to go wrong like this but everything changed with a simple twist of fate.”
Paul Philips, TT and Motorsport Manager at the Isle of Man Government, has paid tribute to Amor and praised his achievements in a relatively short space of time.
“Despite his late start to TT Racing Keith has had a great career. People often forget that he only began racing on the Mountain Course in 2007 and was a whisker away from Steve Plater as fastest newcomer lap that year. He finished on the podium in his second year and went on to claim at least one podium a year every year since. He quickly established himself as one of the leading TT riders and he was a great teammate to John McGuinness last year. I have no doubt that with had he continued to race at the TT fully fit, he would have won races and he is a popular figure who will always be welcome on the Isle of Man.”
