Popular road racer Guy Martin made a flying visit to the Ards Peninsula yesterday for a last minute test session at Kirkistown, prior to this weekend’s Scarborough Gold Cup where he aims to give local team Tyco Suzuki their first ever win in the premier class at the North Yorkshire event.

Martin won the Gold Cup on seven successive seasons between 2003 and 2009, but missed last year due to a blood infection, and believes the perfect way to sign off 2012, would be to give Hector and Philip Neill a Gold Cup Superbike victory at his home circuit.

“I’d a blood infection last year. I’d a bit of EP90 oil in there or something like that. It was real bad, I couldn’t even ride my pushbike for a month, but I’d like to win it this year for the boys,” said Martin.

“I actually didn’t know they had never won one. I thought they were certain to have done that with Lougher of Jefferies, so yeah it’d be nice to be the first TAS rider to do that. Yeah that would be some job indeed.”

Martin made his debut at Scarborough in 2002 and his first three Gold Cup victories were on privately entered Suzuki machinery, before adding in a solitary Yamaha win in 2006 with Alistair Flanagan’s AIM team.

After that he enjoyed a hat-trick on Honda machinery with Shaun Muir’s SMR team between 2007 and 2009, then sat out the 2010 race due to grip issues when supported by Wilson Craig.


But coming off the back of his Ulster Grand Prix Superbike success in August this year with Tyco Suzuki, and having turned down the opportunity to race at Macau in November, Scarborough will bring down the curtain on 2012 — so as he explained, he wants it to be a memorable one.

“That’s another bloody season over. Where do they go boy; where do they go?” was his ever-familiar deflective response. Before analysing his machinery and opposition for the weekend ahead.

“Years ago a ‘two-fifty’ was the job as they all thought the circuit was too small for a Superbike. But now you need a Superbike to win. We’ve two years’ experience with the Suzuki now and we’ve made big improvements with the tyres thanks to Pirelli.

“There’s the two Dunlops to contend with and Lougher; he’s a boy round there. Then there’s Michael Pearson, he’s not too shabby at Scarborough either. But I’ll be right. I don’t normally like start and stop places and that’s really what Scarborough is. But I think it’s the trees.

“Yeah I like the trees and it’s a proper road race. Half the width of Cookstown and more importantly — half an hour up the road from me. Yeah proper job.”



.