GUY MARTIN RACING

Guy Martin won a hard-fought Supersport victory at the Cookstown 100 Road Races on his Tyco Suzuki GSX-R600. The Lincolnshire man managed to hold off a spirited ride by Michael Dunlop to take the win by the narrowest of margins – 0.12 second. Guy also bagged two second places in the Open and Superbike events in front of an estimated 15,000 fans.

Michael Dunlop rode superbly in the Superbike races breaking the lap record three times to beat Guy by nearly 2.5 seconds in the KDM Hire Cookstown 100 feature race and by nearly 4 seconds in the O2 Cookstown Open race. Derek Sheils took the third step of the podium in both the big bike races with Dean Harrison third in the Supersport race.

Speaking afterwards, Guy Martin said
“I knew I was comfortable in the Supersport race when I saw plus four on my pitboard, but probably backed off a bit too much and let Dunlop back into the race, what with slowing down and a bit of a mistake. He’s a good old boy and we had a good race but he did hit me on the last lap. I’m just glad I was able to hang in for the win. In that last Superbike race I really couldn’t have given any more. I think I led for four laps and I also went under my old lap record, but I can’t knock the man – I was just beaten by a slightly better rider on the day. We still have a few things we want to try with the Superbike before the North West but I’ve already spoken to Philip about them today and we’re on it.”

Next stop for Guy – the North West 200.

Results

KDM Hire Cookstown 100
Michael Dunlop [Honda]; 2nd – Guy Martin [Tyco Suzuki] +2.503sec; 3rd – Derek Sheils [Honda] +6.863

O2 Cookstown Open Race
Michael Dunlop [Honda] 2nd – Guy Martin [Tyco Suzuki] +3.904sec; 3rd – Derek Sheils [Honda] +8.719

Cookstown DC Supersport
Guy Martin [Tyco Suzuki]; 2nd – Michael Dunlop [Honda] 0.119sec; 3rd – Dean Harrison [Yamaha] +10.089

In only his second ever appearance at the Ian Watson Spring Cup, Guy Martin took a clean sweep of three wins at Oliver’s Mount riding for Tyco Suzuki last weekend.

Martin won the opening leg from his pole position spot by some 11 seconds and was five seconds up on the rest of the field on his GSX-R1000 Superbike in the second leg when it was red flagged. Martin also recorded the pole time in the Junior 600 class on his GSX-R600. He went on to win both Junior 600 races, which now sets him up for the Cookstown 100 in Northern Ireland on the last weekend in April followed by the NW200 in mid May.

Martin said:
“I’ve only ever competed in the Spring Cup once before but I love the Scarborough Circuit and I think I even surprised myself today. Everything worked perfectly for us and to come away with a one hundred percent record is very satisfying.”

Guy’s next competitive outing is Cookstown on 26 and 27 April.