Steve Martin tests Virgin Yamaha British Superbike

Australian Steve Martin has tested the Virgin Yamaha British Superbike at a Donington Park track day.

He only had an hour of clear track during lunch, but after 20 laps he proclaimed the Virgin Yamaha R1 that Tommy Hill rides in BSB to be, “this is the best superbike I’ve ever ridden. It does everything the way it should do. Whoever developed the engine has done a great job. It’s smooth, linear and so easy to get on the power and that’s the secret of going fast.

“And the chassis is one of the best I’ve ridden. You can chuck it into the corner, the front sticks and the thing turns. And that’s with no special tyres. In an hour I’ve lapped faster on a bike I’ve never ridden before than I did managed here in the WSB round – and that’s with no rubber on the track.”

Martin, a veteran of 170 WSB race starts, did a 1:33.5 in Superpole on the DFX Honda for the Donington WSB round in April but did a 1:32.7 on the Virgin R1. The lap record stands at 1:31.24, set by Gregorio Lavilla on the Airwaves Ducati last year.

Martin had 15 laps of getting acclimatised to the bike running in a very busy track day fast group before getting the one-hour dinner slot to really get down to some serious testing.

The bike was set up as Tommy Hill had finished at last week’s Croft BSB test apart from some slightly different forks springs and though Martin asked for the rear to be lowered and the engine power delivery softened, when he started doing competitive lap times he reverted to the original set-up.

Team boss Rob McElnea was delighted with the test and said: “The aim of the test was for us to get someone on the bike with a lot of experience as back up to help Tommy (Hill, Virgin Yamaha’s number one).

“We’re happy because Steve has confirmed the new chassi settings we got from Yamaha Italia. Okay we know Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga are happy with it in WSB but this is positive confirmation for Tommy.”

But McElnea stopped short of saying whether or not 38-year-old Martin would be riding the Virgin R1 for the rest of the season. “That’s not what the test is about,” he said. “Throwing him into the deep end at a track like Oulton, without having first let him have the chance of seeing the place, might be a negative step.”