Fourty-five year old Michael Rutter first won a race at the Isle of Man TT back in 1998, and until this year he had four wins around the illustrious Mountain Course to his name.
Yesterday, riding the distinctive green Paton SC-Project Reparto Corse machine, Rutter added a fifth win as he led for almost the whole duration of the four lap Lightweight race.
The result gave Metzeler their first win of this year’s TT, which has seen it’s schedule shortened due to some pretty atrocious weather conditions coming across the Irish Channel.
The Italian machine was shod with Metzeler’s Racetec RR K1 treaded race tyres, which helped Rutter knock an impressive 7 seconds off the old race record.
Also known as the Supertwin race and open to four-stroke, twin cylinder machines not in excess of 650cc, the Lightweight TT is a very competitive class and in recent years has been dominated by Ivan Lintin.
Second over the line and also on Metzeler was Martin Jessopp on the Riders Motorcycles supported Kawasaki ER-6, with Peter Hickman in third to claim yet another podium in what has been a very successful week for the BSB man.
There is no racing scheduled for today, and tomorrow organisers are hoping to run the single lap TT Zero followed by the final sidecar race and Blue Riband Senior contest.
Let’s hope the weather picks up for everyone in the island!
Find out more about the Racetec RR here.
