Martin will join his yet to be announced Road Racing and British Superbike team-mates in pre-season tests in Spain, scheduled for February or March, before possibly opening his account with a British Superstock appearance at the end of April. The plan is to take in a number of Superstock races throughout the 2011 season, but a full itinerary of his, and the rest of the team’s plans will be announced in the coming weeks.

Guy Martin

“You just don’t get any more of a proven team than Relentless by TAS Suzuki and with their official support from Suzuki and something like 15 TT wins, it wasn’t a difficult decision to make. I was at a Pirelli test earlier this year and took 101 pictures of their bikes and the preparation of them is ‘proper’ – that’s what made my mind up. They are the best team I’ve been with do date; that’s all there is to it. I just want to hit the ground running now. After pre-season we’ll hopefully do some Superstock races in the British Championship, as we know the GSX-R1000 is well capable. Let’s face it – it won the Championship just last year with Alastair Seeley on it. Yeah it’s all proper and I’m looking forward to getting started.”

Philip Neill – Team Manager

“It’s been a difficult decision changing our line-up as we pride ourselves on loyalty. In saying that, Guy is a rider I’ve wanted to work with for a couple of seasons now, and my loyalty to other riders probably held that decision back a little. He came to us full of enthusiasm and wants to do things our way, which was a good starting point. And on top of that, I’m a sucker for a challenge and I like Guy’s free spirit attitude. He’s created a Guy Martin brand without even trying and that’s also pretty special.

“Obviously we know he’s a very talented rider and has been extremely unlucky not to have won races at both the North West 200 and the TT. So our motivation is to complete that task, while making sure Guy also fulfils his commercial responsibility representing a manufacturer backed team. Having spoken to him at length before we agreed a deal, I know he wont let Suzuki or our sponsors down.”