Guy Is Back!

Back on a bike and pushing hard as he aims to reignite his TT dream

- Stephen Davison

The growl of the new Fireblade as it left Monteblanco’s pit lane at 9.24am last Thursday signalled the return of Guy Martin to road racing following a 19-month break. Clad in the same black retro leathers he wore when he last raced a Honda in 2010, the 35-year old reignited his TT challenge in the blazing Spanish sunshine.

Guy hasn’t raced on the roads since breaking his back in a crash on a Tyco BMW at the Ulster GP in August 2015 but there was nothing slow or steady about the popular Lincolnshire man’s official Honda Racing debut.

Struggling with electronic issues, Guy slid off his superstock-spec SP2 at the final turn on the opening day, thankfully injuring nothing but his pride. “I chucked it up the road, sorry about that,” he apologised sheepishly as he rode back into the garage.

Admitting he was feeling a little rusty, Guy had lost the front end and was forced to endure some good natured banter from his mechanics who wondered aloud if they had packed a set of stabilisers in the truck.

Getting his hands dirty