Road Racing: Major setback for Norton and McGuinness

Organisers for this year’s International North West 200 meeting in May have thrown the participation of John McGuinness and the Norton team into doubt.

The British team, with 23x TT race winner McGuinness, had lodged an entry to contest both superbike races at the event.

The problem lies exclusively in the size of their engine. It is too large.

For a superbike machine to be eligible for competition at the North West, a V4 or an inline four cylinder engine must be no larger than 1000cc. A slightly smaller V-twin engine (as seen in previous years on Ducati machinery) is given dispensation to be 1200cc.

The ruling by race organisers was made to encourage cross-series participation. The 1000cc limit is commonplace in domestic championships around the world such as BSB, MotoAmerica and Australian Superbikes. As a result, the event has seen an enormous influx of overseas competitors since the turn of the millennium.

The current Norton model – the SG8 – is a V4. However, with different regulations in place for the TT (for which the machine has been primarily built for), the engine runs at a capacity of 1200cc. 200cc more than legally allowed at the North West.

McGuinness, did not hide his disappointment at the decision:

“I need the North West 200 organisers to let Norton race as well – how, when or what I don’t care, I’m not interested in the politics – even if we don’t get any results I want to ride there and be sharp for the TT. The Norton will drag a few more thousand people to that North Coast in Ireland to watch that bike.”

It is worth mentioning that the entry from the team has not been completely thrown out. Race director Mervyn White, has said that he hopes a solution to resolve their problem will be found before May, enabling both Norton and McGuinness to compete.

The team have a number of options to ensure they can be eligible for competition. One solution would be to fit a 1000cc engine into the SG8 chassis. This can be done by either building one themselves, or buying an eligible engine from another manufacturer. The former is admittedly extremely unlikely given the team only have four weeks to complete the build. The second option is certainly possible, provided the new engine fits the chassis.

The alternative would be to abandon the Superbike class for this year, and enter the Super Twin category with their new Lightweight machine. The bike is eligible for the competition, and would secure both the Norton entry and vital track-time for McGuinness in the build up to the TT.

Time is ticking but it is still reasonable to expect Norton and McGuinness to line up on the starting grid together, one way or another.