Guy Martin looks set to take a break from his day job as a truck fitter in order to focus on his bid to become the first man to reach 300mph over a mile on a motorbike.
The former-road bike racer says his main priority is building a bike capable of breaking the speed record and has quit his job at Dowse Haulage in order to focus on the task.
“It’s all that’s occupied my mind for the past two years,” Martin told CM. “I’m in a bit of a flat spot with it at the minute. I’d like to think this year has been successful if I’ve done 280mph by the end of the year. I don’t think I’ll be doing 300mph, but I don’t know.”
Martin says he will spend the next few months focusing on the harvest in his tractor, which he hopes will give him enough time to complete some of the many jobs needed to get his record bid on track.
“There’s not a lot left of the Hayabusa, but it is based on a Suzuki Hayabusa. I bought it with 20,000 mile on [the clock] for £5,000 two years ago and it’s been slowly evolving since. It’s got the frame, the swinging arm, forks, brakes and wheels, all standard. There’s a lot of standard stuff on it, but it’s doing 830hp.”
“Currently the fastest man is a bloke called Bill Warner, who’s dead. He did 278mph on a standard frame motorbike, which is what mine is. Unofficially he did 311mph, but in a mile and half, so official the world record is 278mph. Then there’s Shane Storm another American who’s at 277mph and there’s me at 275mph. But for the past five years no one has done over 260mph in Europe.”
However, he’s not ruling out a return to the commercial vehicle world just yet.
“Trucks is all we’ve ever done, me, dad, my brother, it’s in our DNA,” Martin added.
Find out what Guy Martin might be up to next in this week’s Commercial Motor magazine. Out now.
