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Rutter seeking first 110mph lap on a single at 2017 Classic TT

Mountain Circuit magician Michael Rutter resumes his quest to set the first ever 110mph lap on a classic single-cylinder bike on the TT course when he rides Ripley Land Racing’s Seeley G50 in the 500cc Senior Classic race on August 26.

Rutter, who won the Lightweight TT on a 650cc Paton in June, already holds the classic single-cylinder lap record at 109.102mph on the Ripley G50, which is based on 1967 specification. He needs to shave around five seconds from that time to achieve the ton-ten target for Ripley team owner Ian Garbutt.

“We know that it can be done, because when Michael set the 109mph lap he was very much held up on the section from Cronk-y-Voddy to Kirkmichael and lost quite a bit of time,” Garbutt said.

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Rutter will have to wrest the 110mph mark from a single overhead-cam two-valve engine that delivers just 58bhp.

“If anyone says you can cruise on a classic bike, they’re wrong,” Rutter said. “You have to have both wheels juddering or sliding across the road to keep the corner speed up. It’s a bit like riding a 250 or a 600 - you have to push really hard in the corners. You’re using full throttle a lot of the time, especially from Ballaugh towards Ginger Hall - it’s just flat-out and tucked in as much as you can. You struggle if there’s a breeze on the mountain. At the end of the day it only has so much power.”

At the back of Garbutt’s mind lurks an even bigger ambition than the 110mph lap - overall victory in the Senior Classic TT against the Paton twins and MV triples. The thirstier multi-cylinder bikes have to pit for fuel in the four-lap, 151-mile drama, while the singles can power straight through.

“I would like to win the Senior,” Garbutt confirms. “Our 350cc Honda K4 has won the Junior race three times, and our AJS 7R has won its class twice in the 350cc race, but the Seeley hasn’t won at all yet. I’m up against the Patons, but so many things can go right in the Classic TT, and even more than that can go wrong.

“It was the same in the fifties and the sixties, when the MVs would win and everyone else was on the Manx Norton and Matchless G50 singles.

Garbutt has history on his side as he seeks a chink in the hulls of the multi-cylinder bikes. In the 1961 Senior TT Gary Hocking broke down on the 500cc MV four, and a 21-year-old Mike Hailwood won on a Manx.

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