Guy Martin has been back out testing his turbo-charged Suzuki Haybusa as he targets the 300mph standing mile record – but the TT hero and TV star won’t be getting things all his own way as more squads muscle-in on the action.

Guy revealed his bid in September 2019 back when none of us had ever heard of Covid-19 lockdowns. The pandemic has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works but despite the disruption he has continued testing the turbo Busa built by fellow speed record holder Jarrod ‘Jack’ Frost of Holeshot Racing.

Sharing little with the original machine, it maintains the stock bore and stroke, with the standard 1340cc capacity but changes have resulted in an output of over 830bhp.

It also has a new chassis with a massively extended swingarm, as well as extra-slippery bodywork. Guy’s current top speed is 270.965mph but recently he was performing some “steady” 220mph tests at Elvington airstrip.

Also there on the day was Frost, who recently returned to his top speed racing after a near disaster final run of 2021, where his rear tyre exploded at a terrifying 240mph, smashing the rear of his bike to pieces while he was forced to slowly bring the machine to a halt on a bare carbon rim.

Frost achieved a personal best of 269.872mph. More competition is coming from Philipe Le Peru who is now consistently clocking 250mph, while Steve Bland and Becci Ellis have both been testing new equipment.

The charge to 300mph is not without risks. The current record stands at 296mph and was achieved by American Bill Warner in 2013. Sadly Warner was unable to better it as he was killed on a subsequent attempt.

So far all of the major runs have taken place at Elvington. “Wind is one issue, the place is so big it can be blowing east at one end and west at the other,” says Trevor Duckworth, owner of Straightliners Events where Guy set his record. “Elvington is really the only place in the UK with room for 0-300 in the mile, it’s stopping that’s the issue!”

Credit: motorcyclenews

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