The Guy Martin and Triumph motorcycle land speed record attempt scheduled for this week has been put back a month, with the team choosing to wait for “optimal conditions” in September. 

At the recent practice week at Bonneville Salt Flats the team recorded a speed of 274.2mph with the specially designed Triumph Infor Rocket Streamliner, 102.6 mph shy of the current world record. 

“It’s gone according to plan,” Martin said after the test run. “I got the hang of steering the thing pretty quickly, then it was a case of building up speed. Wind is the big thing, so it’s not a case of just jumping in and twisting the throttle. We chipped away and early on Tuesday morning we did 274.2mph, making it the fastest-ever Triumph.

“Everyone was dead happy, but that’s just one step to where we want to be.”

The famous salt isn’t ‘yet fully capable of supporting a top-speed streamliner run’, which had led to the current delay. The record run is now pencilled for mid-September.

Crew chief and streamliner designer Matt Markstaller explained further: “We are in a great position to move ahead with our record attempt. Guy settled into the streamliner very quickly and impressed us with the speed in which he mastered both the motorcycle and riding on the salt.

“While conditions were some of the best I have seen over the last few years, we feel there is still some room for improvement. When chasing a record such as this on two wheels the conditions have to be the very best they can be, to give us the greatest chance of achieving the speeds we require to set a new record. We feel that waiting a few further weeks will provide us with even better conditions and put us in the ideal position to make our record attempt.”