Michael Rutter gave the Isilon MSS Discovery Kawasaki team something to smile about at Donington Park today with a pair of top ten finishes aboard his Ninja ZX-10R. The 34-year-old’s 9th and 8th places in the two Bennetts British Superbike races did something to erase the pain of his young team-mate’s bad-luck in the MAXXIS British Supersport race. 18-year-old James Webb ended up in the gravel in the first turn after a collision with another rider, continuing the Kent rider’s poor run of luck on race-day after an impressive qualifying performance.
Michael Rutter, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R (9th and 8th)“Race one was a little disappointing as we had a good start but then had a tyre degradation issue after just six laps. The second race was better as I was able to battle harder throughout the whole race and ended up setting my fastest lap on the last lap. The chassis improvements have been a big help this weekend but I think that our next step is to integrate some electronics and traction control system to the ZX-10R as most of our competitors run something like this on their bikes.”
James Webb, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R (DNF)“I’m so upset at what happened. All weekend I’ve been running up at the front and my time on race tyres has been good, but then my race is run after just a few yards. On the run into Redgate a rider moved over on me and I had to apply the brakes, then they touched my bars and down I went. I’m gutted for the team, but I must bounce back from this for Brands.”
Jack Valentine, Race Team Manager“We leave Donington Park frustrated today, but still in an up-beat mood. James’ crash was such a disappointment for us, but it wasn’t his fault and the positive is that he was running at the front all weekend. Apart from Michael’s problem in the first race, we could see him actually be able to race and fight with some people in race two. He was pushed onto the grass with Karl Harris and normally this would have put him into no-man’s-land, but today he was able to fight back and was able to record his fastest lap on the last lap of the race.”
Nick Morgan, Team owner“We’re all very upset about what happened to James today – the poor lad was almost in tears when he came into the garage. We have to look at the positives as he was up there all weekend and had great race-pace: it’s just a shame that through no fault of his own the bike ended up on its roof in the gravel trap. Today we saw Michael able to battle people again – which is good! The bike is improving, but I think we can see that we need some sort of electronics and traction control system to improve further. We’ll try and get a system fitted for him by Brands Hatch.”
Related News
