Former World’s Strongest Man winner Eddie Hall has made his trackday debut aboard a Suzuki Hayabusa at Donington Park.
Hall took to Donington Park in a video posted to his YouTube channel on Monday 2 January 2023, which documented his first time riding a motorcycle on a race track.
Hall’s choice of machinery for his track debut was a perhaps uncommon one, in the form of a Suzuki Hayabusa producing 225 horsepower, complete in a custom “The Beast” paint job. (The bike itself was provided by Powerslide Motorcycles, who British Superbike fans will recognise as the team Bjorn Estment rode for in the Superbike class in 2021, and in the Superstock class in the first part of the 2022 season.)
The video showed Hall’s progress on his first day of track riding, which was cut short in the end due to rain beginning to fall.
Beginning with a lap time of 2:19 in his first session, Hall was able to get down to a 2:04 by the end of his third session; an impressive 15-second reduction in lap time and seemingly at the cost of no major off-track excursions or trips to one of Donington’s many gravel beds.
For context, the World Superbike lap record at Donington was set in 2022 by Jonathan Rea on his factory Kawasaki ZX-10RR at a 1:26.080. Of course, it is an unfair comparison to make considering the level of not only the two riders but also the equipment, and, in any case, Hall mentions in the video that the bike-rider combined weight is around 400kg for himself and the Hayabusa. A disadvantage that even Scott Redding would struggle to empathise with.
Hall himself rose to prominence in the 2010s as he won a total of 13 strongman competitions at English, British, and UK level between 2010 and 2018. But, the moment for which he is most well-known is winning the 2017 World’s Strongest Man competition.
Image credit: Eddie Hall The Beast YouTube channel.
