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26 year old Lincolnshire rider Guy Martin was denied what
looked a certain victory when he was forced to retire from today's Dainese
Superbike TT in the latter stages.
Riding the 1000cc Hydrex Bike Animal Honda, Martin was well
in command to the tune of ten seconds and controlling the race when a problem
forced him out on lap four at Sulby Village.
 The race started bizarrely when Guy arrived at the start
line late due to no fault of his own and despite losing nine seconds at the
start, he smashed the class lap record with a lap of 129.103mph from a standing
start to lead by four seconds.
Main rival John McGuinness went out with a misfire on lap
two at Glen Helen as Martin continued to increase his lead on Shaun Muir's
machine and with another record lap of 129.540mph and a fantastic pit stop by
the team, saw him increase his advantage to thirteen seconds.
In a position to control the race, Guy kept the gap between
him and second placed Cameron Donald to around ten seconds and that was the case
half way round on lap four when the bike cried enough leaving his dreams of his
first ever TT win shattered.
Donald went on to take a debut victory ahead of team mate
Bruce Anstey with Adrian Archibald in third place but at least Martin had the
consolation of retaining the lap record as neither Donald nor Anstey went faster
on the final lap.
Guy is hoping to make amends for his disappointment when he
competes in the Superstock TT which gets underway at 10.45 on Monday followed by
the Supersport TT at 13.15.
Dainese
Superbike Race Result
1, Cameron Donald (Suzuki), 2, Bruce
Anstey (Suzuki) +00m:09:62s, 3, Adrian Archibald (Suzuki) +01m:23:29s, 4, Gary
Johnson (Honda) +01m:45:34s, 5, Ryan Farquhar (Kawasaki) +02m:05:35s, 6, Ian
Lougher (Yamaha) +02m:11:11s, 7, Keith Amor (Honda) +02m:50:47s, 8, Daniel
Stewart (Honda) +02m:57:33s, 9, Carl Rennie (Suzuki) +03m:18:63s, 10, Steve
Plater (Yamaha) +03m:34:16s.
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