Norton Manx R turns its first laps at the TT – and it’s in good company
Norton’s new Manx R has done its first laps of the Mountain Course, not in a race, but in something arguably more considered. On Sunday 31 May, the 206bhp superbike took part in a Legacy Lap led by Carolynn Sells, the first and only woman to have won a solo race around the Isle of Man. That win came at the Manx GP and earned Sells a Guinness World Record while she was at it.
The lap was part of a new partnership between Norton Motorcycles and Women Riders World Relay, and it wasn’t just the Manx R on show. Several women rode Norton motorcycles around the course together, a proper cross-section of the brand’s history out on the road at once.
Hayley Bell, founder of WRWR, was among them on a Norton Atlas. Also riding were WRWR CEO Liza Miller on a Mercury 650, Isle of Man Ambassador Lisa Brain on a Dominator 99, and others aboard machines ranging from a CS1 and a CJ350 to a Dominator 88. If you wanted a rolling museum of Norton, this was it.
Bell said of the occasion: “Leading the first women-led Legacy Lap at the Isle of Man TT is a huge honour. The TT is one of the most respected events in motorcycling, and to ride alongside women who have helped shape its history, on Norton motorcycles with such a powerful connection to the island, is incredibly special. This lap represents what WRWR stands for: connection, challenge and change.”
Norton’s UK Regional Director Chris Bexon pointed to the timing as deliberate – the Manx R’s appearance came 119 years after the brand’s first-ever TT win, achieved by Rem Fowler back in 1907. “Norton and the Isle of Man TT are deeply connected,” he said. “With the new Manx R alongside our heritage machines, this is a powerful expression of where Norton has come from and where the brand is going next.”
It’s a smart way to introduce a new machine. No press launch paddock, no carefully lit studio. Just the Mountain Course, a group of riders with proper credentials, and a thread running all the way back to 1907.
