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Guy Martin

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With the salt conditions at the Bonneville Salt Flats finally improving, land-speed racers can once again flock to the Utah locale for their high-speed pursuits.

One such effort will be the folks at Triumph Motorcycles, who are resuming their bid to be the fastest motorcycle on earth, with their now-named Triumph Infor Rocket Streamliner project.

The mark they must beat is 376.363 mph, and Triumph hopes that they can be the first two-wheeler to break the 400 mph barrier. To help them in that effort, they have enlisted road racer and daredevil Guy Martin to aid their cause, picking up where their LSR project stalled in 2015.

The world’s favorite road racer will not be at the 2016 Isle of Man TT, nor at the North West 200, as Guy Martin says he will be missing those events on this year’s calendar. Instead, Guy Martin will take to a different kind of road bike, cycling in the Tour Divide race through North America.

There has been rumor for some time about Martin forgoing the TT for quite some time now, and there has even been talk of the Lincolnshire man hanging up his leathers entirely.

The latter doesn’t seem to be the case, but Martin does seem to be drifting away from the Isle of Man TT – an event he has never won a race at, though he has come close.

“I’m not done with motorbikes and if I race on the roads again this year it will be with the TAS team,” said Guy Martin, talking with the Isle of Man TT website. “The BMW bikes are mega and the team are spot on.”

It seems Guy Martin won’t be a BBC Top Gear host after all, according to Britain’s Commercial Motor magazine, as the mechanic from Lincolnshire has seemingly turned down the job offer to be one of the hosts of the infamous British show.

Though a disappointment, Martin has seemingly reached this decision because the rigors of hosting Top Gear would have required him to quit his day job of being a mechanic, and interfered with hit motor bike racing pursuits.

Racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats has been a tumultuous affair for 2015, with the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) forced to cancel its Speed Week event for the second year in a row, just to see the AMA now proclaim its Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials event a tentative “go” barring more weather in the Salt Lake City area.

One of the teams we hoped to see competing on the salt flats was Triumph, with its Triumph Rocket III Streamliner and Guy Martin at its helm. With Guy Martin’s savage crash at the Ulster GP leaving the Lincolnshire-man with a broken back, sternum, and ribs, Triumph has had to re-think its 2015 land-speed record program.

As such, Triumph is calling this year a wash, and will return to the salt flats in 2016, where hopefully conditions, and more so fate, will allow the team to race towards its 400 mph goal.

Guy Martin’s weekend at the Ulster Grand Prix is over, after a nasty crash during the Dundrod 150 Superbike race left the Tyco BMW rider with a broken vertebra, sternum, and ribs.

Watching the footage of the crash (after the jump), Martin was surprisingly lucky with his crash, despite his laundry list of painful injuries. Martin went down in one of the few areas on the Dundrod Circuit where there is a clearing, and narrowly missed a tree that was in his crash trajectory, in the process.

That being said though, Martin will have to remain in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for the next few days, as he recovers from surgery and mends his wounds. He is said to be in good spirits.

After competing in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last year, Guy Martin continues his pursuit of racing beyond just road race courses, with an announcement today that he will compete with Triumph for a land speed record at Bonneville.

The news sees the Lincolnshire-man aboard the Triumph Rocket III Streamliner, which is powered by two turbocharged 2.3-liter Triumph Rocket III engines that make a combined 1,000 horsepower.

Triumph and Martin hope to top the current FIM motorcycle land speed record, which is 376.363 mph, pop the 400 mph barrier, and thus bring the land speed record back to the Triumph brand, and the UK, after a 45 year absence.

If there is one event everyone gets excited about at the Isle of Man TT, it’s the Senior TT. Often called “the blue-ribbon event” at the Isle of Man, the Senior TT is not a race for the elderly, like the name suggests, but instead it features the biggest, meanest, machines on the road course.

Most of the PokerStars Senior TT grid is filled with bikes from the Superbike TT, as the classes have a great deal of overlap, but the Senior TT usually has one or two special machines, who fall outside of the Superbike rules — the Norton SG4 is one of those machines.

All the TT riders want to win the Senior TT, and it fittingly is the final race of the Isle of Man TT, which only adds to excitement.

With Friday being drama-filled at the Isle of Man TT, the Senior TT was no different.

It might be the shortest event during the TT fortnight, but the TT Zero packs the more technology and development than the other TT races combined. Every year, the electric race bikes make leaps of progress in their pace, and for 2015 the unofficial mark to beat was the 120 mph barrier.

Team Mugen seemed close to that mark during the practice sessions, with John McGuinness posting a timed 118 mph lap. With Bruce Anstey already a race winner from the Superbike TT, and McPint always looking good on the Shinden race bike, the duo was heavily favored to win.

This year’s TT Zero also sees the return of Brammo to the Isle of Man, disguised as the Victory Racing team.

Victory was originally slotted to have Lee Johnston and William Dunlop as its riders, but Dunlop’s crash during the Superstock race meant his TT racing was over for this year. Luckily, his Tyco BMW teammate, Guy Martin, was available and keen to ride the electrics, and thus substituted for the injured Dunlop.

Other entries include Saroléa and Saietta, as well as the university teams from Brunel, Kingston, and Nottingham.

In a surprise move last night at the 2015 Isle of Man TT, Guy Martin climbed aboard the Victory Motorcycles electric bike that will race in Wednesday’s SES TT Zero race.

The move came about after Martin’s teammate, William Dunlop, who was also set to race for Victory in the TT Zero, crashed at Laurel Bank during the Superstock practice session yesterday, breaking his ribs in the process. As such, Dunlop will not compete in the rest of the TT races.

Monday saw again a schedule change to the 2015 Isle of Man TT, which meant that only the first Sidecar and first Supersport races would be underway, the Superstock race being pushed now to Tuesday.

Conditions for the first Monster Energy Supersport TT race were perfect, though the 6:30pm start time meant that riders had to contend with the light, especially in the sections where it filtered through the tree leaves. That didn’t stop a great race from happening, though.

After a multitude of delays and interruptions by the weather, Sunday finally played host to the first race day of the Isle of Man TT.

As is the custom, the RST Superbike TT, or Junior TT as some call it, started things off — who doesn’t like seeing the fastest bikes on the Mountain Course right at the start of things, right?

Ahead of any TT, there is a ton of speculation. John McGuinness said the lack of practice played to his advantage, with the Honda CBR1000RR being a proven package here at the Isle of Man. Bruce Anstey was the first rider to do a 130 mph lap in practice, thus being the quickest to pace.

Michael Dunlop made a surprise switch from his Milwaukee Yamaha YZF-R1, back to the BMW S1000RR he rode to great success last year — will that move prove to be prudent? And then of course, there’s Guy Martin, who has said before the fortnight that this is his last TT ever.

After a three-minute delay on the starting grid, the riders were finally off for the first race of the 2015 Isle of Man TT. Continue reading for a full race report.