By Phil Wain
July 12 2005

Guy Martin took his first points of the season in the British Superstock Championship this weekend at Snetterton, 10th July 2005. It was a scorching day in the countryside in Norfolk and, after qualifying in 13th, Guy took the Barron Transport Suzuki to 15th and one point - although it was looking like he’d score a fair few more.

After a solid start, Guy was embroiled in a six-man dice before he moved to the head of the bunch to establish himself in tenth place. With just three laps left, it seemed that a strong top ten finish was coming his and the team’s way, but an engine problem saw him lose power and drop back. Try as he might, he was being punished along Snetterton’s long straights and was powerless to fight back, eventually crossing the line in 15th.

After almost 24 minutes of hard racing, a downcast Guy commented: “I’m bitterly disappointed to finish 15th and I felt like we deserved a lot more. I haven’t been to this circuit for over three years, but gradually got back into the groove and felt quite good for the race after a steady qualifying session. I got a reasonable start and had a good dice with Ian Hutchinson before making tenth place my own. I’d have been well happy with a top ten position, but with just a few laps left the bike suddenly began to lose power.

“I’ve got no idea what went wrong but I had no drive out of the corners and the straight line speed, which had been great all weekend, suddenly disappeared. There was a light flashing on the dash so maybe it was something electrical, but they all came flying by me. Like I say it’s very disappointing and a shame for the team, but we’re in one piece and can now look forward to getting back out on the roads at the Southern 100 this week. It’s probably my favourite meeting of the year and I would love to win the Championship.”

The Southern 100 gets underway with practice on Monday evening (11th July) before three days of race action around the 4.25-mile Billown circuit.