THE RETURN - TAKE TWO
His 2007 return to the TT after seven years away was much applauded, but came and went with a whimper. Mechanical problems and a broken wrist kept Rutter off the really fast lads. For 2009 he’s back properly. Yamaha are behind him and things are going well. Should be good for a fast lap or several, then.

Make no mistake about Michael Rutter’s validity as possible race winner in this year’s Isle of Man TT Superbike races. He’s back on the Island he loves with the full-backing of Yamaha behind him.
The 37-year-old has one of the most famous names in TT folklore – his dad Tony was one of the event’s original big draws winning seven TT races – and sees the 2009 TT as another chance to add to the history with a brace of good rides.
For this year, and as Island Racer went to press (we point this out because his personal race schedule may get bigger in the last few days before racing gets under way), Rutter is out in force in both Superbike races.

It might have been a couple of years since Michael got out on the Mountain Course, but it’s certainly not for the want of trying. Michael always wants to get out at every TT event he can.
“Basically I’ve been wanting to do the TT every year that I can but really whether I get to actually race there often depends on what team I’m with, how they look at the whole Isle of Man event and how it impacts on what they want to do elsewhere in the season.
“This year I’ve jumped in with Rob McElnea’s team for the BSB and Isle of Man races and it’s been great. Rob’s done the TT before so it was quite easy to persuade him that I wanted to go and do it. Yamaha are really interested in being a part of the TT this year too because basically they’ve only really got Ian Lougher in it, so they were up for me to race for them.

With everyone keen to do it we managed to put something together. “We’ll only be out in the two superbike races on the R1 but yeah, I am really looking forward to it. I can’t wait. I would like to be out racing in the other races on the Island too, but at the moment it’s just the big bikes. But you never really do know what might happen in the next few weeks and hopefully I might be able to get another ride on something else.

“Basically, I always want to go back and have been trying to every year, but in any year it’s mostly down to the team that a rider works for. If they are more interested in just doing the British championship then it makes it very hard to try and sort out a ride for the TT.
“They want you just to focus on that and they don’t want to split the team up to go to the Island. It means that there can be some clashes and it is a bit of a pain. Luckily enough we’ve got around that this year and I am only going to miss one day of practice, the Saturday night of practice, for the Thruxton round of the British Superbikes. It works out really well.”
It may have been two years since Rutter last went out at the TT but it is far from the case that the Midlander is making his return to Island life to mop up on some unfinished business there.
“I have never thought that, probably because I want to get out there and race every year I can.
“I’ve won a race, finished on the podium a few times and I absolutely love racing on the Isle of Man so no, I’m not there for any other reason than to race as hard as possible and compete as well as I can. I’m absolutely looking forward to it.”

Looking forward to it is one thing, but getting out there and lapping at the phenomenal lap speeds that it now takes to be competitive is quite another. Rutter’s Island assault in 2007 was hampered by a recovering broken wrist and mechanical woes, but since even then the pace has upped as the fast men have got faster so does he have a game plan for returning to the party this year?
“I think that all I can do is just suck it and see. I am going to get out there on the bike, ride round and see where I am at the end of it to get an idea of pace.
“I went out there on a 600 a couple of years ago and when I did the 600 felt as fast as the last time I was out there on a superbike before that. Then when I got out on the superbike it was like: ‘Bloody hell, this is fast!’ But you get used to it.”

Used to it at those sorts of speeds takes a very special combination of man and machine though and with the all-new Yamaha R1 and that much-talked about engine/rider connection that has proved so effective in World Superbikes Michael must feel good about getting the most from the Japanese four.
“I think the bike will be very good to race at the TT, but you’re never 100 per cent sure until you get there. It’s been terrific fun to ride on the short circuits and now the thing is that with the TT, the roads are better than some of the short circuits we might race on. You’ll get the odd place at the TT where they are hard places to ride through, but that’s what makes it good – and that’s why they’ve left them alone. But I generally, as far as setting up the Yamaha goes for me, I’ll virtually leave the bike as it is and see what happens when we get out there on that first lap.”
It’ll take the first full lap of the Mountain Course to see if Michael Rutter still has the pace to take another TT win. The smart money is openly betting that he has.

As for the stars at Billown, from its earliest days it attracted riders of the calibre of Bob McIntyre – the first man do a 100mph-plus lap svents plus a support race.

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