The organizers of the Ulster Grand Prix say roadracer Guy Martin won’t be taking part in this year’s event.
The news will come as a blow to Martin’s fans, who’d hoped to see him back aboard his Honda CBR1000 race bike after a disappointing outing at this year’s Isle of Man TT, which saw him miss the Senior race after crashing the Honda in the Superbike event. Martin blamed the crash on false neutrals in the gearbox. His teammate John McGuinness also missed the racing after a serious crash at the North West 200.
For now, we don’t know the reason Martin isn’t participating, but we do know what sort of speculation we’re going to hear. On one hand, the Martin fanboys (and girls) will say it’s all the bike’s fault, that their working class hero would be out there plying the roads if it wasn’t for his lack of confidence in the machine. On the other hand, the Martin detractors will say it’s all in his head, and that he hasn’t had the same drive to roadrace since his bad crash at the Ulster GP in 2015. The truth, as always, lies somewhere between those two arguments.
