Fred 'Buffy' Baggs with the restored 350cc Norton Manx. Photo: Supplied
After a decades-long search, a Tauranga family has located the motorcycle ridden by the first-ever Kiwi to win a FIM Grand Prix - the forerunner to today's Moto GP circuit.
Ken Mudford rode the 'factory works' 350cc Norton Manx to victory at Ulster's Dundrod Circuit in 1953, after he was asked to stand in for injured Zimbabwean (then Rhodesian) rider Ray Amm.
Kris Holmes, whose grandfather Bill later owned and set a New Zealand quarter-mile record on the bike, said it was discovered fully restored in Australia, as part of the estate of Australian rider Fred 'Buffy' Baggs.
Speaking from Texas, where he worked as a music teacher, Holmes said he'd posted in online motorcycle forums, looking for the Norton Manx for about 10-15 years.
"I was like, hey, 'This is the bike, this is the history that I know of it, does anybody know what happened to the bike, because it's one of only 12 that were ever made, it's going to stick out if it was still around'."
Earlier this month, Holmes could hardly believe it when he got a response to a two-year-old post.
"I got this message from Stephen Baggs and he said, 'Hey, my dad is Buffy Baggs. He bought that 350 Manx in 1978, took it to Australia, and spent the last years of his life restoring it and rebuilding it, and here's some photos'.
"I was just, like, 'What the heck?' It was just amazing to hear from him, that he had found the post and that the bike had been restored so beautifully.
"It looks lovely in the photos."
Bill Holmes on the 350cc Norton Manx Photo: Supplied
"The overwhelming thing is he's, like, 'Man, I wish my dad [who died in September] could have met your granddad' and I'm, like, 'Yeah, well, they would have hit it off immediately, and probably had 20,000 old racer stories to tell about the old days and crazy stuff like that'."
Despite the more than 50 years since Bill Holmes, who died in 1999, parted with the bike, there could be little doubt it was the same machine.
"You can expect that it looks a little bit different, but there's definitely the frame, the numbers match up and then there's little things as well, like Ken Mudford's initials are scratched under the oil cap.
"They did that to all the bikes on race days, so they didn't get the parts mixed up, so it's got KM in there, under the oil cap. It's the same bike."
Kiwi Ken Mudford at Ulster's Dundrod Circuit in 1953. Photo: Supplied
Holmes said, after the Norton Manx's victory in Ulster, New Zealand importer Whites Wholesale shipped the bike downunder in early 1955, when it was mustered out of the Norton race team.
"Bill White loaned it out to Ken Mudford again to ride in New Zealand and then also to another local rider named Syd Jensen. They did really well on it, then one of them - either Ken or Syd - blew it up."
Holmes, whose family owns Mount Motorcycles, said being a factory works bike, the engine had to be sent back to England to be rebuilt. His grandfather, an accomplished rider himself, picked up the bike in about 1959.
"The biggest 'what if' for us is that he got asked to represent New Zealand at the Isle of Man TT in the late 50s and my grandma, being the fearsome woman she was, said, 'No, you cannot go', because the attrition rate for riders was pretty high at that stage, and he had a couple of young kids and was the main breadwinner.
"He got a little bit, I guess, not forgotten, but just wasn't really seen as getting out there like those other guys were. He was very much one of the better guys to never leave New Zealand and was certainly very well known."
Holmes said his grandfather rode the 'works' Norton Manx with great success locally for 2-3 race seasons, before he "blew it up again".
As a private owner, there was no question of sending it back to the UK, so Bill sold it to a fellow rider with connections who could help rebuild the engine and eventually the family lost track of it.
"It was always something where like my father [Ray Holmes] and my uncle [Darcy] would always say to me, 'Remember that 350 works Manx that your grandfather had?' That was really good and like it was an awesome bike'.
"There's always these stories about it, because it was such a unique motorcycle for New Zealand at the time."
Bill Holmes astride the factory works Norton Manx. Photo: Supplied
Ray Holmes, himself a collector of classic bikes, heard whispers about the bike being in Australia, but the trail had always gone cold, until now.
When Stephen Baggs' father, Buffy, died in September he inherited a collection of about 20 race bikes and set about trying to find out about them.
"I found the photographs posted by Kris and, because I'm intimately connected with this historic bike, as soon as I saw the pictures, I knew what it was and of course Kris' description of it confirmed that as well - a happy accident, really."
Fully restored 350cc Norton Manx motorcycle. Photo: Supplied
Victoria-based Baggs said his father bought the Norton Manx in 1978 "for about NZ$4000, which seems a sinfully cheap amount of money. I think it was about A$5800 all up, by the time he got it home".
Buffy Baggs knew the early history of the bike, but there was an information gap the last New Zealand owner - named Steve Palmer - couldn't fill, which included Bill Holmes' exploits on the bike.
"It was described to him as a former factory works machine and my dad didn't see that there were any surviving ones floating around like this, so he realised it was something very special and jumped at the chance to purchase it."
The bike turned up in a rough state.
"It's needed a lot of TLC to get it back to the pristine condition, the way dad has it now," said Holmes. "It was never as clean and beautifully painted as he has it.
"It's in beyond new condition, if that makes sense."
Buffy Baggs never got to ride the Norton Manx.
"I think he intended to get it going and running, but it hasn't run in 50 years, because it's this special machine with special internals."
Stephen Baggs said he intended to work with a specialist to put the finishing touches to the machine required to get it running.
"We're going to get these last couple of bits into the bike and fire it up for the the first time in 50 odd years. It will be a wonderful thing."
He said, although it was wonderful to have connected with the Holmes family, it was also tinged with sadness.
"My dad wasn't computer savvy and didn't really understand social media, but he lived and breathed this machine. To see the bike he loved in racing trim and with Kris' grandfather in the racing suit of the time... it's just a wonderful snapshot and I know, if he's looking down from somewhere, he'll have a big grin on his face.
"He'll be going, 'It's another part of the story' and it is such a wonderful piece of the story."
Baggs hoped one day the machine could go to a museum, perhaps even in New Zealand.
