RR » Buckmaster tells fans to get courage or shut up
07 July 2010
After coming under fire from road racing fans following his remarkably frank assessment of Guy Martin, Simon Buckmaster has now turned his ire on the critics. 
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 'façade'.
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:
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