A FORMER Manx Grand Prix winner received a bizarre surprise as he began work on his new house.

When Dave Milling, 55, pulled back the floorboards in the property in High Road, Kells, he found a picture of himself.

Under his house had been a 25 year-old edition of The Whitehaven News proclaiming ‘Race ace Dave is king of the road’.

The story followed Dave’s success in the junior class and lightweight category at the Manx Grand Prix.

“I bought the house and when I started to rip the floor up I found old copies,” said Dave, who owns Dave Milling Motorcycles on Preston Street, Whitehaven.

“When I turned them over one of them had me on the back page. It was a surprise. My partner has been to get it framed.”

Pictured by John Story – who also took this week’s photo – he is showing off the trophies he was presented with alongside his bike.

He said: “It’s in the hallway of an old house and the newspapers had been used to raise the footwell to the level of the carpet.

“It didn’t half bring back memories. In 1991 I won the lightweight on the Monday and the junior on the Wednesday riding the same bike.”

Dave, who has been out for this year’s Isle of Man TT, will return to the scene of his victory for the Manx Grand Prix at the end of August and early September.