Ian Garbutt, owner of the successful Ripley Land Racing team, is pairing with Mountain circuit wizard Michael Rutter to try to give a single-cylinder motorcycle its first win in the 500cc Classic TT in August.

Rutter will ride a Seeley Mk II with a Matchless G50 engine - but he will have to crack the stranglehold of the £80,000 Paton twin-cylinder machines if he is to achieve Garbutt's ambition. Rutter, 42, set the 500cc classic single-cylinder lap record for the Mountain circuit at 109.102mph on the Seeley last year, but the bike broke down when he was leading the race on the third lap.

"We've won the 350cc classic race three times with Honda and AJS machinery, but I've always missed out on the Senior," Garbutt said. "We've finished second twice, but we've always been pipped by Paton machinery."

However, Garbutt reckons that the combination of Rutter's Mountain circuit skills - he has a TT win and seven other podiums on his CV - allied to the speed of his ever-evolving Seeley-G50, can crack the domination of the more powerful Italian twins. A key element of the Ripley team's  strategy is that the Patons have to pit once for fuel, while the singles can run straight through the four-lap, 151-mile contest.

"We've got the lightweight Seeley into such fettle, with Fred Walmsley doing the engines, that it's capable of winning the race," Garbutt said. "It's a big ask for us, but it's possible. We might need one or two Patons to break down."

Ironically, Rutter will ride a 650cc S1 Paton dohc twin in the Lightweight TT in June, in the ILR team of Ian Lougher - who won the 2014 500cc Classic TT on a Paton.