Michael Rutter eyes success at North West

And in his 30th year of racing, the 47-year-old has returned to famous road race on Northern Ireland’s stunning Causeway coast – which itself is celebrating 90 years of racing – hungry for more success.

The Bridgnorth star will be competing in everything other than the 600cc supersport races, with plans to mount serious challenges in the superbike, superstock and supertwin classes.

Rutter also hopes to race his stunning Honda RCV, which he took out for a few laps at Outlon Park last weekend, in between racing in the National Superstock 1000 championship.

But if regulations do not allow him to ride the MotoGP-spec machine, he still has a back-up in his tried and tested BMW 1000RR machines, which have served him well on the roads in recent years.

He is also back with fellow road racing star Ryan Farquhar, who these days runs his KMR Racing team and helped pioneer the new 650cc supertwin format, leaving behind the Paton he raced to victory in the same class in 2017. The victory moved Rutter to third on the all-time winners list at the famous Northern Irish triangular circuit, sandwiched between late greats Joey Dunlop and his brother Robert, while Alastair Seeley tops the list.

Rutter will be racing under the Bathams banner in all formats too, with more solid backing from the Black Country-based brewery, which also supports his team and racing on the circuits.

“There is no doubt that the North West is more competitive than ever, and this promises to be a very interesting year,” said Rutter.

“It feels like I have been coming to the North West for 90 years!

“I would love to get another win to add to my North West tally, and winning the feature race on the RCV would be a dream come true. But we will have to wait and see what happens.

“Everything has been going OK and hopefully we’ll be able to run the RCV,” he said. “We cannot officially announce what we will and won’t be racing but we’ve got a BMW superbike and superstock ready to go too just in case.

“I’m also riding a Bathams KMR supertwin with Ryan Farquar’s team too, so we’re doing every class other than the 600.”

“I’ve finished on the podium with Ryan’s bike before so we’ll see how we end up but we’ll be pushing for the top three. But, to be honest, the aim is finish in the top six in every class.

“We also took the RCV out at Oulton Park for a few laps to just bed it in a bit and the noise seemed to go down well with the fans.

“It’s set up, good to go, and whatever happens we’ll be racing it at the Isle of Man TT.”

Rutter enjoyed a successful 2018 campaign at the North West 200, which included his 32nd podium with a third place in the opening superbike race, setting a new personal best lap, averaging 122.162mph around the 8.9-mile circuit.

He actually crossed the line at the end of the seven laps in fourth, but was promoted to third after a five-second time penalty for Seeley.

He took a strong fourth place during his opening superstock race, finishing just two seconds off race winner Peter Hickman, but then suffered gearbox issues in the second superstock race of the meeting, coming 13th.

The feature seven-lap superbike race was the final battle of the day and Rutter came home seventh after a six-way battle for second place.

Rutter is in practice today and Thursday morning. His first races take place Thursday evening, with his first supertwin and superstock contests.

Saturday is a full day of racing, which will see Rutter competing in two superbike races, and the second supertwin and superstock races.