British Superbike veteran Michael Rutter shows no signs of hanging up his Macau Grand Prix leathers even after taking a record-breaking eighth win at the Guia circuit yesterday.
The Midlander, who is looking at his 25th year of competition in 2013, beat Martin Jessopp by five seconds after blasting away from the start and taking just two corners to pinch the lead from Gary Johnson and says he will be back next season.
"Firstly I must pass on my thoughts and condolences to the family and friends of Luis Carreira who we sadly lost in the first qualifying session. It marred the rest of the week but as we all know in racing we have to keep strong and carry on. It was a mixed week with accidents and also weather problems that seemed to put delays on everything," sad Rutter.
"It's hard to keep focused and in the zone when session are cancelled or postponed. The week seemed a long one as the other sessions were delayed after darkness fell and then the race delayed due to wet weather.
"I'm really pleased however, with how everything went on the Jezac SMT Honda, everyone worked really well together and despite not riding a Honda for a few years everything felt good from the off. We took it steady on the first session and just tried to find our feet get a good set up on the bike and ready for the remaining session over the three days.
"Once everything was working right I got my head down and wanted to put in some good lap times from the start, I was able to be consistent through both qualifying and practice and was able to set pole position. I was once again fastest in warm-up and really looking forward to getting out there and race the Jezac SMT Honda. I got a bit of a bad start and Gary (Johnson) shot out the blocks but I needed to make sure I got past him early on.
"I got through and got my head down, I noticed Martin (Jessopp) was catching me and I just wanted to remain at the front and focussed on the job in hand, I could see the gap was going back up and just stayed with that pace for the rest of the race.
I'm over the moon to have gone into the record books again with win number eight; I really enjoy coming here and hope I can continue for a few more years yet. I'd like to thank all my loyal sponsors for supporting me this year through a tough season and I'm glad I've been able to end the season on a high and repay them for everything they have done for me. Now I'm looking at finalising my plans for 2013 and hope to be able to announce something soon."
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