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TT 2016: Michael Rutter’s Diary - episode three

After going on Manx Radio on Thursday morning and taking some sponsors around the course, I spent the rest of the day helping out in the Bathams/SMT Racing awning. We've only had Warren and Alec this week so we've been a bit down on numbers and I've been helping get bits together where I can.

I always like to have an hour or two to myslef before practice as well just to double check that everything's prepared whilst I also checked in with the KMR Kawasaki team to sort a few things out with the Supertwin I'm riding. Nothing major needed doing, just little things like changing and moving the rev lights as it's hard to see the dash. I also had to do some stuff with Steve Plater for Friday evening's ITV4 show.
 
Then it was straight into practice on the Superbike. We tried a different tyre, fuel map and exhaust and it was the most evil handling bike I've ridden for years. It took me back to the old days of the RC45s as it was wheelying out of control and the brakes were coming nack to the bar. It was pehnomenally fast and it's amazing how a few relatively small changes can change the bike so much.
 
It was horrendous and I parked it after one lap while the boys made a few changes. There wasn't time to do everything but the second was slightly better although by then, my head had gone and I was wrecked. My arms felt like they'd been ripped out of their joints and the one lap on the Stocker was just a run around.
 
I didn't really want to go out again but I needed time on the Twin and I'm glad I did as it made me feel good about life again. There were a few yellow flags out for some reason on the first lap plus there were a lot of newcomers out in the session so it was a steady first lap but the second was a lot clearer. It went well and I ended up fastest on the night with a 118mph lap. I'm quite happy with it but we'll soften the front a bit more, try a harder front tyre and take a bit of rebound off it for the next time I'm out on it.
 
Once the session was over, I was back to the Bathams/SMT team where I sulked for about half an hour and then it was down to Paparazzi for some pasta and a bottle of wine. I only slept about three hours worrying about the Superbike so it was an early start on Friday to get our heads together to try and get the thing to work better for me.

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