Bathams/SMT BMW veteran Michael Rutter has proved he is still a force to be reckoned with at the Vauxhall North West 200 after going underneath the lap record on his way to setting the quickest time in Superstock qualifying today.
Rutter put in a 4’25.021 lap to take spot and is just under a second quicker than favourite Briggs BMW’s Alastair Seeley but the forty-something rider was also almost four-tenths quicker than Ian Hutchinson’s 4’25.348 set in race two last year.
Hutchinson, on the Tyco-backed BMW, was third fastest on a 4’27.312, one place ahead of Michael Dunlop’s S1000RR while Lee Johnston and Martin Jesopp and Gary Johnson made it a BMW top-seven lockout. Dean Harrison is the first non-German marque bike, taking his Silicone Kawasaki to eighth with Horst Saiger ninth and William Dunlop tenth.