WIZNORTON TO LINE UP AT MGP
The WizNorton Racing team will field a two-man line up at this year’s Manx Grand Prix with Shaun Anderson and James Hind contesting two classes at the August event.
Both Anderson and Hind will campaign the team’s immaculate WRS 588cc Nortons in the four-lap RST Classic Superbike race, which concludes the race programme on August Bank Holiday Monday.
Hind will also contest the opening 2 Wheeling Classics Classic Junior race, held over the slightly shorter distance of three laps, on the ear-splitting 294cc German DKW machine.
For Lincolnshire’s Hind, it’s his maiden outing at the Manx for the team but Anderson is no stranger to the 588cc Norton, having finished in a fine ninth place in last year’s Classic Superbike race.
That saw him post a best lap of 120.685mph which was even more impressive given that reliability issues had prevented him from completing a lap during practice week.
Both he and Hind, and especially the team, will again have the great Steve Hislop’s lap of 123.50mph in their sights, the Scot’s speed on the final lap of the 1992 Senior remaining the quickest ever lap by the iconic 588cc machine.
Josh Brookes got closest to the mark in recent times with a superb lap of 122.926mph in the 2017 Superbike Classic TT.
Hind will be hopeful of making an impression in the re-introduced Classic Junior race as well, in which the team first ran the DKW at the 2022 Manx GP when former rider and now travelling marshal Richard Wilson lapped at 93.903mph.
24-year old Hind, who finished in a superb fifth place in the opening Monster Energy Supersport race at this year’s TT, will also be aiming for glory in the three-lap PE Lightweight Manx Grand Prix race where he lines up on the Dennis Trollope Racing Yamaha.
A double race victor in 2019, Hind lapped at 117.592mph in the 2022 race before he was forced to retire when leading on the final lap with less than three miles to go.
If you want to see the Nortons and earsplitting German DKW take to the Mountain Course this MGP, check out Duke Travel for packages from the UK and further afield, Horst Saiger for German Tours and the Isle of Man Steam Packet for race day day trips.
