PARADE SPONSORED BY ISLE OF MAN STEAM PACKET

One of the biggest highlights of the 2015 Classic TT presented by Bennetts will be the 'Norton - The Rotary Years - Parade sponsored by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company', featuring a number of the iconic machines which took countless wins and podiums in the British Championship, as well as at the Isle of Man and other International road races between 1987 and 1994.

While the Norton Rotary has appeared in many parade laps around the Mountain Course - and, of course featured in race wins and podiums - never before have so many appeared in one time on the island. Indeed, the Mountain Course lap will see no less than 13 of the revolutionary machines, owned by the National Motorcycle Museum, take to the 37.73-mile course.

The first incarnation of the rotary developed by Brian Crighton, the driving force behind the machines, was the RCW and this forms more than half the parade line up with eight of the black clad John Player Special sponsored machines lining up on the grid. Ridden between 1988 and 1990 by riders such as Steve Spray, Ron Haslam, Robert Dunlop and Ray Stringer, the ITV4 trio of Steve Parrish, Steve Plater and James Whitham will ride three of the machines while Malcolm Wheeler will ride a fourth with a subsequent feature appearing in Classic Racer magazine.

Trevor Nation and Steve Cull both took International road race podiums on the JPS Norton with the former finishing second in the 1990 Senior TT. Both will be reunited with their old mounts with the two remaining RCW machines set to be ridden by William Dunlop, representing his late father Robert, and Australian ace and current works Norton rider, Cameron Donald.

By 1990, a newer version of the 588cc machine had been developed and was badged the NRS. Nation and Dunlop both campaigned the machine at the TT, the latter taking third in both the 1990 F1 and 1992 Senior races. His youngest son Michael will be on board one of them in this year's parade with Manxman Conor Cummins on the second.

The final works NRS Norton Rotary in the parade is arguably the most famous - 'The White Charger' that the late Steve Hislop famously rode to victory in the 1992 Senior, which was voted the greatest TT race of all time. Hislop was riding number 19 that day and 23-time TT Race winner John McGuinness will have the honour of riding the machine.

The two remaining machines are the only ones that didn't race at the TT. On leaving the official Norton team, engineering guru Crighton first created the Roton and then the Duckhams QXR Norton, the latter going on to dominate the British Superbike Championship in 1994.

The late Mark Farmer first rode the bike in 1992 before Jim Moodie finished second in both the Supercup and British Superbike Championship in 1993. However, the team enjoyed their finest moments in 1994 when they expanded to a two-rider line up in the shape of Ian Simpson and Phil Borley. Between them, the duo took no less than 14 wins and 31 podiums on their way to finishing first and third respectively in the British Superbike Championship and they also took multiple 1-2 finishes in a host of non-Championship meetings across the UK that season.

Simpson will ride the number 25 machine that took him to the title with the other bike being ridden by Peter Hickman, whose dad Dave played a major part in the Norton rotary's success, working with Crighton on the machines from 1987 onwards.

The riders will leave the line in single file and in chronological order to a narration read by Manx Radio TT Anchorman Tim Glover, which will tell the story of the Norton rotary's remarkable history as well as the riders that rode them.

David Cretney, the Isle of Man Government's representative for Tourism and Motorsport commented:

"This stunning assembly of machines and riders will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the motorsport calendar on the Isle of Man this year and will be a great tribute not only to some of the greatest and most evocative machines in the TT's history but also some of the legendary riders that raced them. Norton has a special place in the Isle of Man's history and I'm sure that TT fans around the world will enjoy seeing these great bikes take to the Mountain Course again."

Hundreds of lady bikers will be gathering  at the Ace Cafe in North West London on 16th August 2015 in an attempt to create a new world record for the largest number of female motorcyclists meeting together in one place.

Between 400 and 600 women aged 24 to 65 years are expected to ride to the meeting, coming from as far afield as Ireland, North Yorkshire, Dorset and Wales.  In September 2014, 221 Australian women on 190 bikes set a record for being the most women riding motorcycles at once.  

The world-famous Ace Cafe London has agreed to host the event on their annual Ladies Day and confirmed sponsors include Circuit of Wales, Mike Dawson Racing, Oval Motorcycle Centre (OMC) and Woodridge Motorcycles. OMC and Mike Dawson Racing will be in attendance on the day.  Mike Dawson and his team will be offering free suspension advice and basic suspension adjustments and the Team from OMC will be offering free 9 Point Safety Checks.  

There will be a charity fund raising raffle, with prizes including Moto GP tickets, bike services, tyres, biketime suspension set up, workbench time, Motorcycle Maintenance training courses and Ace Café goodies.  The charity to benefit from the day is The Hospice of The Valleys, whom Circuit of Wales support.

The meeting is the brainchild of bikers Nimisha Patel from London and Sherrie Woolf from Wales. They are keen to raise awareness of the increasing number of women riding motorcycles, particularly for bike and clothing manufacturers in the hope of seeing improved product ranges aimed at women. “When shopping for protective clothing, the female section is usually lacking in options and often the quality is lesser than the male counterparts. Sizing is also a huge problem that could be resolved with quite simple solutions. The assumptions are very frustrating with many ladies leather trousers not having the Velcro area to attach knee sliders. It’s time to realise that women are no longer just sitting on the back of the men’s bikes, we’re buying our own and using them for touring, off-roading, track days and commuting, just like the guys!” quotes Sherrie Woolf.   

Karen Cole, Safety and Training Director at the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) and a long term rider herself explained:  “We believe the industry’s Get On programme has been instrumental in bringing more women into motorcycling.  40% of people who took a free ride with Get On were women, according to survey replies from nearly 9000 people. 

Get On made it easy for women to try motorcycling for the first time.*Social-media has surely played a part in bringing women riders together in the past few years. The proliferation of female biking groups on Facebook has meant women riders can easily find friends to ride out with locally.  As a result, small informal groups have been springing up across the country, which obviously helps generate and sustain interest in riding.”  Pages have been set up on social media sites to share news of the event and organise logistics. Even celebrity bikers are spreading the word, including James Whitham and Maria Costello, herself an ambassador for ladies in the sport of motorcycle racing.  “We hope that even more women will hear about the record attempt in the lead up to the event so that we can get as many lady bikers together as possible on 16th August. It will be a great opportunity for women to meet, share information and hopefully encourage more ladies to get involved with bikes.”

For further information about the event, please contact Nimisha Patel and Sherrie Woolf on [email protected]

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Italian Night Special!

The fourth annual “Milan to London Marathon”, for classic and sports cars, departs Milan to arrive at Ace Cafe London on the evening of Thursday 13th August – occasion of the cafe’s increasingly popular “Italian Night”, held regularly on the 2nd Thursday of each month.

Amongst the 65 cars taking part in this 10 day, charity fundraising rally, is a 1938 500cc Fiat Topolino, a 1959 2-litre Alfa Romeo ex- Monte Carlo rally car, along with some special Ferrari’s, Fiat’s, Lancia’s and Maserati’s!

For more information about the rally, which also plans to visit www.acecafeluzern.ch, check out: www.millonmarathon.eu

For more information about Ace Cafe London and what's on, check out www.ace-cafe-london.com

MV AGUSTA MOUNTED TT STARS JOHNSTON AND HARRISON LEAD STRONG OKELLS BREWERY 350cc CLASSIC TT RACE ENTRY Spacer

A stellar line up has entered the Okells Brewery 350cc Race at this year's Classic TT presented by Bennetts and with the riders and machines, arguably, more evenly matched than any other race, it could prove to be the closest of the festival. The race, which was oversubscribed with a number of high quality entries, is scheduled to take place on Bank Holiday Monday 31st August.

Lee Johnston, last year's race winner heads the entry list with the Northern Irishman having romped to victory in record breaking style 12 months ago. The 26-year old shattered the lap and race records and returns on the Black Eagle Racing 350cc MV Agusta and few would bet against him serving up a repeat performance.

As usual, he'll start at number 13 and will head down Glencrutchery Road ten seconds behind his teammate Dean Harrison who could well prove to be his closest rival. The Bradford rider missed last year's race but he has shown in the past his aptitude for anything with two wheels and won the 2013 Formula Classic Race.

Honda-mounted riders form the bulk of the entry and a number of them will provide Johnston and Harrison with some stiff opposition, none more so than the Davies Motorsport pairing of William Dunlop (6) and Alan Oversby (4), the latter having taken a good runners-up spot to Johnston twelve months ago.

Michael Rutter (Ripley Land Racing) makes his debut in the class and gives the Japanese manufacturer another great chance of victory. Other contenders include Olie Linsdell (Flitwick Motorcycles/SMV Engineering), James Hillier and Alex Sinclair (CSC Racing), Jamie Coward (Ted Woof Racing) and Andy Lawson (Easy Air Conditioning). Chris McGahan, Nigel Moore, Phil McGurk, Paul Coward, Pete Boast and Chris Petty give Honda further strength in depth.

Like the 500cc class, Norton will be well to the fore with the Team Molnar Manx pairing of Cameron Donald (number eight) and Dan Cooper (number five) expected to be running at the head of the field while Keith Amor will have strong expectations on Tony Dunnell's machine, the Scot leading the field away at number one. Wattie Brown, Nick Jefferies and Gavin Lupton are just three more fancied Norton runners.

The father and son combination of Bill and Chris Swallow are likely to be in the mix on their respective Ripley Land Racing AJS and Fawcett Aermacchi machines as will Mark Herbertson on another AJS whilst the consistent Doug Snow is again on the entry list with his trusty 340cc Ducati.

Meanwhile, there are no less than 15 250cc machines in the field and all will be aiming to win the Phil Read Trophy awarded to the class winner. The T20 Suzuki's are the choice of many including Adrian Harrison, Tom Jackson, Jeff Ward, Maria Costello, Billy Cummins, Andy Wilson and Alan Bud Jackson but the Yamahas of Chris Moore and Dave Edwards and Pete Symes' Kawasaki will ensure they don't have it all their own way.

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) have expressed disappointment at the findings of the latest long term review of drinking and driving data issued by the government this morning (6 August) which shows a stagnation in progress since 2010.

Drinking and driving data from 1979-2014 shows there were an estimated 8,320 drink-drive casualties in 2014 in Britain, up from 8,270 in 2013. This is the first increase in casualties since 2002 (1). More importantly drink-drive related deaths have remained unchanged since 2010.

Neil Greig, IAM director of policy and research, said: “While good progress has been made over the years, we are very concerned that we may have reached a plateau and are not making much progress in further reducing alcohol related crashes.

“The new government has a great opportunity to set the agenda right at the start of the new administration and top of their list should be a consultation on reducing the drink drive limit in England and Wales to align with Scotland and most of the rest of Europe.”

ENDS

Reference:

1

The IAM is the UK’s largest independent road safety charity, dedicated to improving standards and safety in driving and motorcycling. The commercial division of the IAM operates through its occupational driver training company IAM Drive & Survive. The IAM has more than 200 local volunteer groups and over 90,000 members in the UK and Ireland. It is best known for the advanced driving test and the advanced driving and motorcycling courses. Its policy and research division offers advice and expertise on road safety.