BRIDGNORTH rider Michael Rutter claimed his second win in 13 years of racing at Isle of Man TT races last week.
After breaking down in the opening Superbike race and then riding home in eighth position following a mis-fire during the Superstock, The Blade turned his attention to the SES Zero race – a fairly new format for the island, which sees riders take on the 37.75 mile track on an electric bike.
But although Rutter was able to stand on the top step again, he narrowly missed out on cracking the prestigious 100mph mark on an electric bike during last Wednesday’s race.
He took his SegwayMotoCzysz machine to 99.64mph average lap, breaking the record that his team mate Mark Miller set last year but narrowly missing out on the £10,000 prize fund allocated by the Isle of Man Government for the first electric bike team to achieve a 100mph average speed around the circuit.
The race saw 2010 race winner Mark Miller off in the number one position, followed by team mate Rutter, who had passed him on the road by the first checkpoint at Glen Helen, with John Burrrows, riding for Lightning Motorcycles, running in third.
Rutter topped the speed trap times at Sulby, posting an impressive 149.5mph, and he later revealed he thought the bike could have gone even quicker, having held back to conserve power.
Rutter was the first to finish and clocked 99.64mph for a lap of 22 minutes and 43.68 seconds. He was followed home by Mark Miller (98.288mph) and George Spence (88.435mph), who took the University Prize for Kingston.
After hearing of his near 100mph average lap Rutter said: “No way! I tried to conserve battery life and stay smooth but we won the race and that’s the main thing. It’s a totally different way of riding but I really enjoyed it.
“We only saw the bike on Wednesday, so I think if we had more time there would be more to come set-up wise. We’ll be back next year to try again.”
In addition to the electric bike, Rutter’s Bathams/ Riders Motorcycles backed Ducati’s started to come good after what was a challenging practice week and first race.
In a fantastic finale to the race week, the Poker Stars Senior TT saw Rutter finish in a respectable 10th place, with an average lap speed of 123.6mph on Friday.
Rutter will now look to the Scottish round of The British Superbike Championship, which will be held at the Dunfermline circuit of Knockhill.
“I’m happy overall to get another TT win and I’m looking forward to Knockhill after our win there last year,” he said. “Hopefully we can get it on the podium again.”