by Gary Inman

Weekend 1

The Cookstown 100 road races in Northern Ireland are the traditional season opener for the real road racing year. This is a National Irish race, on a tight, bumpy, dangerous circuit that still attracts big name TT riders. Dainese's Guy Martin lines up next to Ryan Farquhar, Michael Dunlop and other top riders. He’s racing both his 1000cc Superbike and 600cc Supersport Suzukis. It's a good start to the day for Guy as he takes a win in the first of the day’s Superbike races on his Tyco TAS Suzuki GSX-R1000.
In Superbike race two he is battling for the lead with Farquhar, the most dominant Irish road racer of all-time, when the Kawasaki rider forces Guy off the track as the pair battle for the lead.
Guy leaves Cookstown full of confidence. ‘It’s the first time I’ve ridden the Superbike in eight months, I got a win and set the fastest lap. The team and those other boys know I mean business.’
 

Weekend 2

What does professional road racer Guy Martin do on a spare weekend? Race a motorcycle, for fun, of course. The weekend after Cookstown, Guy was at a cold and wet Cadwell Park in his home county of Lincolnshire. He was there to race a classic Suzuki XR69, a replica of the great-great-grandfather of his current race bike, the Suzuki GSX-R1000. This is racing for fun, not money. He sits in the back of a rusty van, talking to his friends and family and drinking tea, as he waits for his race to be called.
It’s May, but colder than Christmas Day. Guy’s first race is delayed by a hail storm. When it is finally time to go out, Guy wins both his races in style. ‘There are plenty of other things I could be doing today, but nothing I’d rather be doing,’ he explains, as he wraps his hands around a mug of tea to warm up.

Photo credit: TAS Suzuki; www.KineticImages.co.uk

by Gary Inman

The Isle of Man TT racer is a different breed from most professional riders and one of the most entertaining men on two wheels

GUY MARTIN

Date of Birth
4 November 1981

Team
Tyco Suzuki by TAS Racing

Married
No.

Children
No.

If you weren’t racing, what would you be doing?
I’d be fixing trucks. I’m very lucky to have a job I enjoy. I’d always have a variety of physical challenges I’d be doing. I might be racing mountain bikes, but I’d never be doing just one thing, If I wasn’t mountain biking, I’d be mountain climbing.

What’s your favourite corner?
Coming out of the 13th Milestone at the Isle of Man. It’s a left-hander and when you get it right it’s brilliant. The 13th is a section of corners, not one single bend. The first is a right-hander, then you go down the hill and into a really long left-hander that takes you to the straight that leads to Kirkmichael. You enter the corner with something like 20% throttle, but you’re on 100% throttle on the way out of it in fourth gear, so about 140mph (225kmh). If you time it right, tip in just right, at the correct speed, you’ve got a great run for the next mile. If you don’t get it perfect, you’ve ruined the next section. That’s my favourite at the moment, but it changes from time-to-time.

What’s the best thing about being a professional racer?
It gives me the opportunity to go and race at places I love, like the Isle of Man TT and the Southern 100.

The worst?
The loss of anonymity.

Finish this sentence: Winning is…
another box ticked.

If you could race in any era, when would it be?
The ’60s, no question. Look at the bikes: the Honda six-cylinder 250/297; the four-cylinder 125cc Yamaha… Fascinating stuff. I’d love it for the machinery, but I also think I’d get less attention, because I’d stand out less. I stand out now, because I’m different, but back in the 1960s everyone was doing the same things I do. I’d also love to be in 1993 so I could race John Britten’s own Britten around Wanganui, New Zealand.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
To be able to turn water into wine.

Do you have a motto you live your life by?
Go big or go home.

Finally, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Measure twice, cut once. You can apply that to everything in life.

Guy Martin is one of racing’s true mavericks and a true cult hero. He works as a truck mechanic during the week, and has also presented TV shows in the UK. The series, ‘The Boat That Guy Built’ is now shown in schools to teach pupils about the Industrial Revolution.
Guy has won some of the biggest real road races in the UK and Ireland, but hasn’t climbed the top step at the TT. He’s led, finished on the podium many times, secured lap records – once with a Honda CBR600 he tuned himself - but the win remains tantalisingly beyond reach.
He currently lives in a bus.

http://www.guymartinracing.co.uk/
http://tyco-suzuki.co.uk/

by Nico Cereghini

Valentino's best race of 2012 coincided with Ducati's worst overall performance as the competition builds its lead with every race. Since last year, both Honda and Yamaha are now over 20 seconds quicker over full race length while the Desmosedici appears to be making little progress. Rossi finished seventh, 26 seconds behind the winner Stoner and four places ahead of his team mate Nicky Hayden who was plagued by electronic problems and finished 1 minute behind the race winner. Since the practice sessions were finally not bothered by the weather conditions, the nine times world champion managed to find a better setting and therefore make a good start. In its present condition however, the Ducati doesn't allow for much more with the gap at nearly 1 second per lap. All hopes of closing the distance between the Hondas and Yamahas now lie in the new solutions the team tested on Monday in Estoril.

Looking at just the data, the third round of the world championship may have appeared dull with Casey securing first position before the third corner and staying there until the chequered flag. In reality though it was a very fast, hard-fought race with the three main contenders lapping faster than they did in practice. By the half way stage, Lorenzo had caught up with Stoner and seemed to be in the hunt but the Australian managed to pull away in the last few laps to leave the Spaniard 1.4 seconds behind. Pedrosa in third was fast but too far behind the leaders to be in with a chance of a win. Stoner now leads the championship with Lorenzo just 1 point behind.

Dovizioso finished in a good fourth position ahead of his team mate, at last, and Bautista came home sixth, ahead of Valentino. Stefan Bradl from Germany had a good race where both his competitive nature and natural style were on full display as he fought with Rossi and Spies only to lose out to the Texan at the finishing line. General opinion is that the 2011 Moto2 champion has all that it takes to get to the top and he is making progress in leaps and bounds. Mattia Pasini was unlucky to crash out on the sixteenth lap and Danilo Petrucci scored 1 point in fifteenth place behind Pirro. Petrucci certainly didn't deserve the embarrassment of being lapped by the leaders but his Ioda is slow and the straights at Estoril are too long.

In Moto2, we saw Pol Espargaro riding aggressively as he tried everything, especially in the last lap, to take the lead from his fellow countryman Marquez. The rivalry between them is becoming more intense and public opinion is split. We have the style and cunning of Marc against the pluck and courage of Pol. On the last lap, Espargaro ran deep at the hairpin and was able to recover but he had to slow down and cruised to the flag in front of Luthi, Zarco and Iannone in that order. It was a shame for Andrea who, until half way, was up among the front-runners. Iannone was unlucky to go off the track and fell back into seventh place after which he made a tremendous fight-back to catch Zarco who was fourth. Had there been one more lap, he would have passed him with ease. Simone Corsi too was unlucky after falling seven laps from the finish when he was in ninth place and making good progress.

No champagne for Romano Fenati in Moto3. Although the rider from Ascoli started from the second row of the grid, he didn't make a great start and even though his FTR Honda wasn't among the fastest down the straights, he performed miracles. At the half way stage, he appeared to be back in the race until a run in with Faubel dropped him to eleventh place and unfortunately, during yet another comeback, he came off again. A shame but no doubt Romano will make up for it next time. In the meantime we saw a rejuvenated Niccolò Antonelli; the Team Gresini rider rode superbly to finish sixth in the slipstream of Vazquez. Luis Salom put in a brilliant lap to finish on the podium in third place after a spectacular duel with Khairuddin, the real surprise of the race, who finished fourth. Alessandro Tonucci finished in eighteenth place ahead of Schroetter, Luigi Morciano finished twenty-fourth and Danny Webb was forced to retire with an engine stoppage. It all kicks off again in France in a fortnight on 20 May at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit.