The Midlands rider smashed the record unofficially earlier in the week during practice on the MotoCzysz 2013 bike, but only narrowly took victory from Mugen rider John McGuinness. Rutter’s new record official is a time of 20:38.46 (109.675mph), beating his time last year (21:45.33/104.056) by over a minute.
John McGuinness was not far behind, lapping with a time of 20:40.13 (109.527mph) on the Mugen machine. The Morecambe missile showed that he can be just as competitive in the Zero class as he is in the other classes at TT 2013. Robert Barber, the 2009 race winner, took the final podium place on the Ohio State University machine, which lapped the Mountain course in 25:02.467 (90.403mph). Rutter’s American MotoCzysz teammate, Mark Miller unfortunately retired at Ballaugh Bridge with a broken gear box.
George Spence on the Kingston University bike was next to finish the race with a time of 25:41.82 (88.096mph), followed by Chris McGahan on the Vercarmoto at 83.857mph.
After announcing that this would be his last TT, Ian Lougher paid tribute to Yoshinari Matsushita, the Japanese rider tragically killed during practice. David Madsen-Mygdal on the Imperial and Paul Owen on the Brunel University machine completed the group in today’s one lap race.
• Another reminder that Aussie ace Josh Brookes will be book signing snd posing for pics at WHSmiths in Douglas tomorrow.
