Guy Martin kick-starts 2013 roads campaign

Guy Martin is poised to make his first roads appearance of the season at this weekend's Ian Watson Spring National road race at Oliver's Mount, Scarborough.

The Tyco Suzuki rider has been out of the media spotlight as the build-up to the international roads campaign continues and was absent from the line-up of invited riders at the official Isle of Man TT launch.

Martin, though, will finally ride a bike in anger as he tops the entry for the Spring National meeting in England at a venue where the Lincolnshire man holds a formidable record.

The 31-year-old has won the prestigious Gold Cup at Scarborough eight times including on his last appearance at Oliver's Mount in September, when he won five of the six races in total.

Martin is due to compete in the feature races on the Tyco Suzuki GSX-R1000 and GSX-600 machines.

His main rivals include evergreen veteran Ian Lougher, who will ride 1000cc and 600cc Hondas for WA Corless/Jackson racing.

Northern Ireland is represented by Lisburn man Michael Pearson on the Team Hotties machines, including a BMW S1000RR and Suzuki GSX-R600, while last year's best newcomer - Jamie Hamilton - rides for Ryan Farquhar's Vauxhall KMR Kawasaki outfit.

Bradford's Dean Harrison will fancy his chances of upstaging Martin as he rides a Kawasaki ZX-10R plus a Yamaha R6 at Oliver's Mount, with Jamie Coward and Ben Wylie also among the entries.

An impressive Sidecar entry includes TT star Dave Molyneux, who recently had a section of the Mountain circuit named in his honour after claiming his 16th victory at the event in 2012.

Practice and racing will be held on Sunday.