Mick Grant joins Norton for TT assault

Norton Motorcycles have expressed their intent to take yet another step forwards with their TT racing endeavour, as the Donington Park-based manufacturer sign seven time winner Mick Grant to join the team in a development and management capacity.

Grant, who last rode for the Norton factory some 40 years ago, will join the team with the intention of bringing his knowledge of both racing and the TT in particular to the young team as they seek to move forwards in 2014 with their SG2 machine.

The SG2, an Aprilia-engined superbike built in-house at the firm’s Derbyshire plant, has been improving steadily in recent years, finishing both Senior and Suberbike TTs with riders Dan Hegarty and Ian Mackman. The team have yet to announce their 2014 line-up, although veteran Michael Rutter was initially believed to be top of their target list.

Grant said: “I am so excited to have the opportunity to work with a brand of huge racing heritage. To work with a team that has so much passion and enthusiasm is great; this is the key to a successful team.”

Stuart Garner, Norton CEO added: “To be able to get such experienced talent like Mick is a real coup for Norton, we are determined to win TT’s here at Norton and we see Mick’s role as a vital step in ensuring our team has the depth of experience to take on the current experienced teams. In particular our engineering team will greatly benefit from Mick’s knowledge. We have built a factory race bike from scratch and are now developing it continually; Mike will enable us to move forward with both bike development and rider management”