Rutter takes pole for North West 200

“F**king brilliant!” are the words Rutter uttered to his team the moment he returned to pit lane at the North West 200 having clinched pole position on his first time there on the Isilon MSS Discovery Kawasaki.

Rutter said: “I really wanted pole, I know it is only pole but it is good for Kawasaki, good for Dunlop and good for the team. The Superbike is really good and I wanted it so much, it really bodes well for the race.”

He actually thought he could have gone faster than his 4min 24.096sec lap time, but he was held up on his fast lap.

He said: “I was trying hard and I got a bit held up at Mathers and I thought it was too risky to pass him (a slower rider). I could have been faster so I was surprised when I came round and saw the time.”

The team still have a few changes to make to the bike. Rutter said: “We are down on mid-range, just getting out of corners but top speed isn’t too bad. We will be working on drive out of the corners and fuelling changes.

“Kawasaki have done a good job it handles real well it’s just the mid-range. I mean, it is all so new, the bike, the team – we’ve had no development time because we’ve been constantly racing with four BSB rounds in five weeks. It means a lot to have put the Kawasaki up there.”

Rutter knows that the race will be a different story and has tipped John McGuinness, Bruce Anstey and Steve Plater as his main rivals.

Rutter said: “To win on the Kawasaki would be mega; there would be a massive party after!”

Bruce Anstey lines up on the Relentless Suzuki in second place and John McGuinness completes the front row with his HM Plant Honda. McGuinness has been as super-smooth as always throughout both qualifying sessions and could well be the man to beat.

Steve Plater and his AIM Yamaha were relegated to the second row which he wasn’t pleased about.

Plater said: “We had a stability issue that we didn’t have on Tuesday night even though we didn’t change anything. I just wasn’t comfy on the bike and I didn’t get a clear lap. I then ran low on fuel and the bike was mis-firing so I pitted to refuel and they wouldn’t let me back out on track. By the time they did I could only get one lap in. I dropped from third to fourth.”

Ian Hutchinson who is still suffering from his crash at Oulton Park last weekend, was out of luck during second qualifying. He is down in 22nd place due to technical problem with his Superbike.

The roads close at 10am on Saturday and racing kicks off at noon with the first Superbike race.