no images were found
From Phil Wain, Freelance PR.
Progress made by Martin
Guy Martin may not have scored the points-scoring finish he was looking for at Brands Hatch on Easter Monday but the Hydrex Honda rider proclaimed himself satisfied with the progress both he and his team had made in preparation for the International Road Races.
Competing in the opening round of the British Supersport Championship, Martin suffered a number of technical gremlins during the course of the weekend, none more so than in final qualifying when a broken radiator saw him stuck in the pits for two-thirds of the 35-minute session. Consequently, he only managed 9 laps, whilst most other riders did in excess of 25, and found himself back on the 8th row of the grid in 29th place.
With race conditions slightly better than they had been in practice, Guy immediately gained some places in the race and had moved up to 24th by the end of the first lap. He steadily advanced forward and was lying in 18th place when he was forced to retire on the final lap. Nevertheless, he was more than satisfied with his weekend’s work and with the changes they had made to the bike.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed not to have finished in the points but these early season meetings are all about me getting time on the bike and ironing out any problems prior to the North West 200. In that sense, the weekend has served its purpose perfectly. We had a number of engine problems in free practice and opening qualiying and the bike was down on speed considerably but we rectified that in time for qualifying only for the radiator to spring a leak. We did all we could in the time we had and managed to get qualified.”
“The race itself was pretty uneventful but I learned a lot more about the bike in a race situation so we can go away from here with a clearer direction on what we need to do. Last year, the first time I rode the 600 was at the North West so we’re already a lot better off than we were 12 months ago and we’ll be able to go to Ireland in May with a bike that’s 100% sorted. Oulton is one of my favourite circuits so I’ll be hoping to reward all the lads in the team for all their hard work with a strong performance.”
Prior to the second round of the British Supersport Championship at Oulton Park though, Guy will be in action at this weekend’s Spring National at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough.
Picture by Glynne Lewis