"It felt good to be approached by a number of teams and whilst it would have been great to be able to follow up every option, that was not the most productive way forward for me or the teams," explained the Aussie. "So I've ended up on a Yamaha theme really. Nothing planned but it's just how it's panned out.
"I did a two day test for the Yamaha France World Superbike team at Lausitzring, alongside Nakatomi on their R1 customer bike which was a lot of fun and we achieved a great deal in a short space of time. The bike was pretty standard but I managed to lap with some respectable times and the guys were happy that I was able to give them some constructive feedback and a direction to head in with set-up going forward."
The Yamaha Europe WSS team, for whom Martin had a one-off ride at Assen earlier this year, then called Steve up to test a number of new components at Brno, alongside Broc Parkes.
"The test went quite well and I was able to dip under the current lap record regularly, although the emphasis of the test was evaluating some new components and not really an ultimate lap time," recalled Martin. "That R6 is a really nice bike and still has a lot of potential to be unlocked, so I was happy to have been able to ride it again and have an input into that."
With Kevin Curtain's planned substitute,
Anthony West, having switched to
MotoGP, a race seat alongside Parkes is now available for the rest of the season. Martin is yet to clinch a deal - but an agreement has been reached to ride for the Mandy Keinz Yamaha Austria racing team in the Suzuka 8 Hours later this month.
"I wasn't really looking to do the 'eight hour', but Mandy kept ringing me and one day he caught me at the right time," said Martin. "I'm glad that he did in the end as it is a very experienced team. My son Axel is also happy about it too as Mandy promised to give him his first motorcycle - a Yamaha PW50 of course - and Axel's not even one yet!"
Martin's next call came from BSB team manager Rob MacElnea, who asked if Martin would the Virgin Yamaha R1 to evaluate its performance.
