Rutter predicts ‘brilliant’ race for fans

[Mago]

Thirteen-times North West 200 winner Michael Rutter is predicting a ‘brilliant’ contest in the Supertwin class as the Vauxhall KMR Kawasaki rider prepares for the opening races of the international meeting.

The Supertwin race, plus the first Supersport and Superstock events will take place as part of a revised Thursday evening schedule following tomorrows final qualifying sessions.

Rutter finished on the podium for Ryan Farquhar’s Kawasaki team in third place in 2012 behind Farquhar and Jeremy McWilliams to seal a KMR clean sweep and lines up as one of the favourites.

“It took me a while to get going in the Supertwin race last year to be honest and in the end it was a bit too late to do anything about Ryan,” Rutter said.

“It’s a nice little bike to ride around the North West and I think it’ll be a brilliant race for the spectators this year. There will be a lot of bikes a lot closer this time.

“It’s going to be a tight race and we’ll be slipstreaming each other all the way.”

McWilliams set the fastest time in the class on Tuesday evening by 0.162s from team-mate Rutter with Kilrea’s William Davison and KMR regular Jamie Hamilton also right in contention.

Michael Dunlop is also entered on the McAdoo Kawasaki while James Hillier is another rider expected to be right in the hunt.