Lincolnshire man Guy Martin's last appearance the Tandragee 100 was in 2017,

after he had signed for Honda Racing to make his comeback at the Isle of Man TT.

Picture: Pacemaker Press.

Superstar Guy Martin’s unexpected attendance at the Around A Pound Tandragee 100 has silenced his doubters.

The Grimsby man received a significant amount of flak when he was a late withdrawal from last year’s Cookstown 100 after running into gearbox issues with his BSA Rocket machine.

Those same problems forced Martin to sit out the Tandragee 100, leading to a social media backlash against the former top international road racer.

Keyboard warriors were quick to pour scorn on the world’s most famous lorry mechanic and they were sharpening their pencils, metaphorically, when he pulled out of the Cookstown 100 again last weekend.

Martin had submitted a provisional entry for the Classic race at the Co. Tyrone meeting but the 37-year-old was unable to make it as he competed in a desert endurance race in the USA.

No wonder, then, that the Tandragee organisers made no mention of his possible participation this weekend.

Martin’s arrival in the paddock at the North Armagh venue on Friday came as a pleasant shock to most.

As the first media reports surfaced that he was back in action at an Irish road race meeting, the silence from his detractors was deafening.

Quite a few of them will no doubt be straining their necks for a glimpse of Martin in action on Saturday.

Whatever your opinion of him, Guy Martin’s involvement in road racing raised the profile of the sport to unprecedented levels at the peak of his career.

And he wasn’t half bad at it either.

Kyle White