Photo - The Foggy - Ducati
The ex-kork ballington 1978 kawasaki kr250 to star at bonhams’ stafford sale
25th International Classic MotorCycle Show, Stafford County Showground
With over 160 bikes and almost 400 lots of memorabilia, this year’s sale will be a bumper one. Machines whose ages span the entire 20th century will be offered along with prestigious collections of literature, trophies and medals. Highlights of this annual auction include:
The ex-Kork Ballington, World Championship-winning
1978 Kawasaki KR250 Racing Motorcycle
Few machines in Grand Prix racing’s modern era have enjoyed such a lengthy period of dominance as the Kawasaki ’tandem twins’ which ruled the 250 and 350 classes from 1978 to 1982, winning 72 GPs and securing eight World Championships for the Japanese manufacturer. This machine is one of the batch supplied new for the 1978 Grand Prix season and ridden by Kork Ballington to victory in the Italian, Finnish, West German and Czechoslovak rounds that year. A rare opportunity to acquire a genuine, ex-works, World Championship-winning racing motorcycle of impeccable provenance. Estimate £20,000-24,000
The ex-Steve Hislop, James Haydon, Virgin Mobile
2000 Yamaha 750cc YZF-R7 Racing Motorcycle
This ex-Virgin Mobile team Yamaha YZF-R7 was used by the late Steve Hislop and also by his team-mate James Haydon during the 2000 season of the British Superbike Championship. Road-going versions are rare and genuine race bikes even rarer, and despite their relative modernity both are highly sought after by collectors. At the end of the 2000 season this machine was rebuilt by the team and sold to neurosurgeon Mr Ian Sabin, Steve Hislop’s great friend and the man who had supervised his recovery from a horrifying crash at the Brands Hatch round of the World Superbike Championship that same year. Ridden by one of the greatest and best-loved motorcycle racers of his generation and in excellent condition throughout, this Yamaha YZF-R7 needs only a freshly charged battery to be ’on the button’. Estimate £10,000 - 13,000.
1998 Norton ’Planx’ Manx
This amazing project was started in 1998/99 and took five years of its creator’s spare time to complete. Every single part of this Norton Manx is made of wood: American black walnut for the crankcase and cam-box, birch for the cylinder barrel and ’head, maple for the frame, forks and swinging arm, pine for the rims and hubs, and oak for the tyres. Other timbers are used in smaller quantities: ramin dowel for spokes, bamboo for cables, tulip wood (poplar) for control levers, etc, and the machine is finished in a clear lacquer. The ’leaking’ oil can is included in the sale. In its short lifetime, this unique work of art has become one of the most famous motorcycles of all time, featuring in Classic Bike Guide, Classic Racer, Old Bike Mart and Classic Motorcycle Mechanics magazines and exhibited around the country. Estimate refer department.
The Roy Davis Collection
Roy Davis, who died in 1998, was a long-time member of the Mortimer Motorcycle Club, raced against the Rickman brothers in the 1960s, and in later years became a well-known figure in the world of pre-’65 Scrambles. His collection of superbly restored machines was on display for many years at the Stowford Motorcycle Museum, Yeovil, and includes the ex-Derek & Don Rickman
1960 Metisse 500cc MkII Scrambler acquired by Roy Davis in the 1980s as a restoration project. which he undertook between 1995 and 1997. This is an important piece of moto-cross history possessing impeccable provenance. Estimate £9,000-12,000.
1988 Honda VFR750R Type RC30
Never started or even PDI’d, this machine displays a total of just one ’push’ mile on the odometer.
One of the modern era’s few immediately collectible classics, the ’RC30’ was created for just one reason: to win the World Superbike Championship, a feat it achieved in the nascent series’ first two seasons of 1988 and ’89. "No other bike from the late-Eighties is lusted after like the RC30," reckoned Bike, and few would disagree. Estimate £18,000 - 22,000.
The ex-J A Worswick
1937 Excelsior Manxman 250cc Racing Motorcycle . A rare example of one of the most desirable racing motorcycles of the 1930s, possessing in-period Manx Grand Prix history. Estimate £8,000-12,000
Mike Hailwood’s 1979 Isle of Man TT Sports Motor Cycle leathers as worn by him in 1979 when he won his 14th and final Isle of Man TT at an average speed of 111.75mph. Later that season, he crashed during practice at Donington, breaking his collar bone and the circuit doctor unstitched the arm of these leathers to extract his arm more easily. Offered with the arm still detached and with ear plugs and handkerchief from that day still in the pocket.
Estimate £4,000 - 6,000.
Mike Hailwood’s 1966 Cromwell helmet and racing goggles. According to information supplied by the vendor, a former mechanic for Hailwood, the hat and goggles were acquired from Mike following a couple of drinks at the Prince of Wales pub in Highgate, London, during the mid-1970s. Offering to drop the vendor home, Mike "opened the boot of his canary yellow Iso Grifo and got out a couple of helmets and suggested we put them on as we had drunk a few pints and it would be safer. When we got home I offered the items back but he suggested I keep them." A few years later, working as a mechanic at the 1978 TT, the vendor was asked by Mike if he still had the items - "When I told him I had, he offered me two helmets he wore on his return to the TT as he did not have any of his old pudding basin helmets left, but I declined."
It is possible that the hat and goggles are the same as those pictured on the front cover of ’Hailwood’ by Mike Hailwood and Ted Macauley, the paint loss to the hat and transfers closely matching. Estimate £2,000 - 3,000.
A separate press release is available for the following items, also starring in the Bonhams sale:
Three Manx Nortons belonging to the late Malcolm Uphill
The Ex-Carl Fogarty, Michael Rutter 1993 Ducati 888 Corsa
The Technical Motorcycling library of a major motoring organisation
The Jock West Collection of trophies and memorabilia
For further information and images please contact Rebecca Ruff on 020 7468 8210 or press@bonhams.com
Notes for Editors
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies. Today, Bonhams is the third largest and fastest growing auction house in the world. It offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further 10 throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, France, Monaco, and Australia. In addition Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives offering sales advice and valuation services in 14 countries. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of more than 40 Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com.