Michael Rutter was more than satisfied with his work at this year’s Isle of Man TT Races, which culminated with a third place and the fastest lap in the re-introduced Lightweight TT. Riding for Ryan Farquhar’s KMR Kawasaki team, Rutter ran in third for the majority of the race and his 12th TT podium followed his 11th earlier in the week when he won the TT Zero race for the second year running. The Midlands rider also had an interesting pit crew with John McGuinness on the fuel and Steve Parrish on the visor change!

“I’ve had a lot of fun riding the little bike here and at the North West 200 and Ryan’s done a great job with the Kawasaki. The pit crew left a lot to be desired though and no one had told me I needed to be in neutral when I stopped for fuel - you keep it in first gear on the big bikes. That meant I was slow to get away and ended up pushing all the buttons available to me before realising what I needed to do. I looked around for McGuinness and Parrish but they were nowhere to be seen! I lost a bit of time but really got my head down on the last lap and everything went well so it felt good to finish 3rd and have another TT podium under my belt," he said.

“The only disappointment of the week was not getting to ride the Superbike in the Senior race. The bike was working really well and after a 128mph lap in practice I was feeling confident for the two big bike races only to make a mistake in the Superbike race, damaging the clutch. We’d put a lot of time, effort and money into the bike and it was definitely one of the best Superbikes I’ve ridden so I was really looking forward to getting out in the Senior on it and ending with a good result.

"It was the right decision not to run the race though. Conditions were fine for the smaller Lightweight machines as you’ve more time to think and they saved the day in a way especially for all the fans but I wouldn’t have liked to have taken a Superbike round in those conditions.”