Norton parade lineup revealed

Thirteen machines set for Festival of Motorcycling parade

The lineup has been confirmed for 'Norton - The Rotary Years - Parade sponsored by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company' at the Festival of Motorcycling.

It will feature 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 featured in race wins and podiums - never before have so many appeared in one time on the island.

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By 1990, a newer version of the 588cc machine had been developed and was badged the NRS.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 rode to victory in the 1992 Senior, which has been voted the greatest TT race of all time.

Hislop was riding number 19 that day and 23-time TT 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 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 history, as well as the riders that rode them.