Buckmaster tells fans to get courage or shut up

Simon Buckmaster has focused his anger on road racing fans who criticised him for his outspoken attack on Guy Martin.

After the 2010 Isle of Man TT, where Martin again failed to secure a TT win and narrowly escaped serious injury in a 170mph crash, the Performance Technology Racing manager offered his insight into the 29-year-old's failings.

The strongly-worded criticism led to a flood of comments on Crash.net and road racing forums, with many disagreeing with Buckmaster's views and others agreeing, but questioning the timing - as Martin was still recovering from fractured bones in his back and other injuries from his fiery Senior TT crash.

Now Buckmaster has hit back at the critics, labelling them 'so-called race fans', accusing them of have their own agendas and denying he had slated Martin at all. He has also drawn parallels with the experience of 1987 500cc Grand Prix World Champion Wayne Gardner, who was blasted by Crash.net contributors after calling for the Isle of Man TT to be banned - the 50-year-old came in for so much criticism he was moved to defend his comments and, like Buckmaster, attack the critics.

In his assessment of Martin, who rode PTR-prepared Hondas for the Wilson Craig team at the TT, Buckmaster called him a quick and immensely popular rider, but 'flawed'. He said Martin ignored advice and was distracted by his image, admirers and public persona. He said the 'just another one of the boys' image isn't true - pointing to Martin's ownership of an Aston Martin - and the persona is a 'fa?ade'.

Buckmaster added:

"He needs to stop being distracted and lift his professionalism. Instead of being a TV star and courting publicity 24x7, he should be concentrating on racing and what's needed to win. Get his focus and concentration into racing, not promoting his name and money-spinning deals."

The critique then went into the use of 'unacceptable bad language' and criticism of a member of PTR staff in a magazine article, 'unprofessional' attitude when Martin showed 'disrespect' during the Supersport TT podium ceremony and was then 'downright rude and ignorant in the press conference'.

He said:

"This is all part of the problem that is stopping him from winning at the TT - he is not approaching it seriously or with a professional attitude, instead spending far too much time promoting this image of what type of person he is.

"And there is a serious point here because if he keeps up his unprofessional approach then he may never win a TT.

"Now Guy may get annoyed with me for saying all of this, but it is simply the constructive truth and if he listens then he will improve his chances of winning enormously."

Despite the strength of the criticism, Buckmaster, whose PTR organisation runs the Parkalgar Honda team in World Supersport, maintains he was not slating Martin, and that the rider has no issue with the comments.

In his latest comments, Buckmaster says:

"Guy and I have no problem with it and in fact he is joining our team for a test at Silverstone ahead of his Ulster Grand Prix campaign. We are going to help him with his 600 suspension set up and it will be a first run for his Superbike since the massive crash in the Isle of Man.

"What really amazes me is some of the comments from so-called race fans on these forums. I can only conclude you either don't have a good grasp of the English language or in some cases just have your own agendas. For those people I suggest you read it again and take your time and realise I did not in fact slate Guy at all, I just made some observations on how we could all get him to the point he wants to reach, i.e. winning at the TT.

"I suppose I should take heart that it is not personal because when Wayne Gardner offered the opinion that he felt the TT had run its course due to the constant fatal crashes most years he got slated just as much by these so-called race fans. Whatever you all may think, Wayne was a great rider and a World Champion in a golden era for the sport and anyone would actually struggle to make a good case against most of the things he said.

"Why don't you all get some courage and name yourselves like Wayne and I did when we made comments instead of hiding behind pseudonyms - or if you don't have the courage for that then just shut up and keep your opinion to yourselves."