North West 200's Michael Rutter took the first win of the season for the team in Race two at Mallory park for the sixth round of British Superbikes and a personal win for him after three years.
Race two took place under gambling conditions with intermittent drizzling showers at the start and riders running on a mixture of tyre combinations. The drying track provided a busy race with front runners merging in with back markers as quickly as mid way through the 30 lap race and riders gaining and losing several places due to tyre compound choice.
At his local circuit Rutter, who rode with a suspected broken knuckle, stripped off on the cool down lap throwing his boots to the crowd. After taking the lead on lap four Rutter won the race by 0'04.405 seconds after luckily choosing slicks.
From the green lights it was all change in a matter of corners with Michael Laverty of Relentless winning to take the lead and pull away at the front. Unfortunately on the unpredictable track conditions Laverty crashed out and even after desperately trying to fix his bent handlebar he could not rejoin the race.
From then on the Rutter was untouchable building his lead up to seven seconds at one point. The race saw a mixture of riders up the front in including Billy McConnell of MSS Kawasaki battling with Leon Haslam, Simon Andrews who was up to third and holding off the talent of Shane Byrne, Gary Mason of Quay Honda and Aaron Zanotti of Red Viper Racing.
Byrne battled to the front to take second and just hold off Cal Crutchlow who had battled up to his back wheel following a bad start, but again due to a good selection of tyres he was able to be a podium contender come the end. Haslam ran off track after a near coming together with Andrews and slipped down the order finishing six overall ahead of Andrews in seventh.
Bomber Harris was back and excitably attacked riders to finish fifth whilst being hot on the wheels of Rizla Suzuki Tom Sykes who just got the advantage in the end. Leon Camier produced successful damage limitation after running down in 16th at the start of the race, he found his rhythm to finish eighth and in the points.
James Haydon riding for MSS Kawasaki this weekend made up for his disappointing race one by finishing 15th, in the points and beating his team mate Billy McConnell who slipped down the field after battling at the front.
Chris Burns has come back with a bang taking the Cup win for the Daily Star Cup with his choice of slick rear and intermediate front, John Laverty of North West 200 took his second podium of the day followed by Hardinge Ice Valley rider Tom Tunstall in third. Gary Mason slipped down the order after running in sixth at one point due to setup problems.
1 Michael Rutter North West 200 Ducati 30'10.219
2 Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati 30'14.624
3 Cal Crutchlow 30'14.805
4 Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki 30'23.602
5 Karl Harris Rizla Suzuki 30'23.808
6 Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda 30'29.736
7 Simon Andrews Jentin Racing/Lloyds British 30'36.147
8 Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati 30'45.226
9 Tristan Palmer Tena for Men Honda 30'54.413
10 Scott Smart Hawk Racing 31'06.641