TT 2016: Johnson clocks fastest-ever lap for Norton

Norton Motorcycles recorded their fastest ever lap around the Isle of Man mountain course this evening as Dave Johnson put in his first flying lap on the V4-powered SG5.

After a number of retirements so far this week, Johnson and the Norton team headed to Jurby for a test earlier today and speaking to MCN on the line for this evening’s session, the Aussie was confident they’d fixed the issue.

A rapid start to his opening lap saw Johnson clock the Norton’s highest-ever speed through the Sulby speed trap at 192.2mph before going on to record the iconic British marque’s fastest-ever lap of the TT course with an average speed of 127.2mph.

He followed that up with a 127.7mph on his first non-interrupted flying lap of the week to show a marked step forward for Norton, who have made huge progress with a new Magnetti Marelli-based electronics system for 2016.  

But he didn’t stop there. 128.32mph was the average speed recorded on his second standing-start lap and he looked set to improve once again on his second flier until losing time in the final sector and crossing the line with an average speed of 127.3mph.

“Now we’ve got something to shout about!” said Johnson after the session. “To say they are our first four laps of the week and they are all fastest than Norton has ever been before, we’re pretty happy. The next step is to keep chipping away and see where we can go, I’m pretty sure we can be hitting 130mph in race conditions.”