Tyco Suzuki's Guy Martin beat reigning champion Michael Dunlop to take the coveted Manx Gas Southern 100 Solo Championship at Castletown today.
Martin shadowed his main rivals Dean Harrison and Dunlop for five of the eight laps around the 4.25-mile circuit, before edging ahead to take his second career Solo Championship victory. He also posted a new absolute lap record in the process aboard his GSX-R1000 Suzuki.
“I’m delighted for the boys and everyone involved with the team. I always knew I could do it when we got things bang on and today we’ve got things bang on. There was no re-inventing the wheel; it was just Danny, Mark and me and this morning we were cutting the grass and having a brew – no stress," said Martin.
"But we’ve proved today that it’s not a fluke. We caught him [Dunlop], passed him; took the win and the lap record. I said yesterday that I didn’t mind coming last in those first two Superbike races to win the big one and that’s what we’ve done.
"Suzuki is the bike to be on as we’ve shown this week, and as for the Metzeler tyres – they were as good on the last lap as they were on the first. Bang on one hundred percent boy. I’m now looking forward to running the number 1 plate when we return next year. I think we deserve a beer tonight, don’t you!”