Croft British Superbikes: Michael Rutter struggles with illness

Michael Rutter looked like death warmed up over the full course of the tenth round of the British Superbike Championship, riding with severe migraines all weekend.

Rutter did well to hide it on Saturday by taking second on the grid in the F1-style Swan Combi Roll for Pole qualifying session.

But that result couldn’t be transformed into a podium finish on Sunday, much to the dismay of Rutter.

“I’m not very happy with the result I got today as I was hoping to be a little higher up,” Rutter said after his two sixth place finishes.

“I’ve been feeling pretty ill for most of the weekend and I’m not sure what it is but I’ve not been feeling 100 per cent.

“I had a few problems yesterday with the bike and also a small crash during qualifying but I still managed to put the North West Ducati on the front row.”

Rutter had to push his number one bike back to the pits twice on Saturday when it broke down in the Complex during practice and qualifying.

Team Manager Ken Foley did report that it was a problem with the quickshifter and nothing more serious than that.

“I struggled to stay with the front boys during the races and had a few issues with grip, despite pushing hard I was unable to do any better than what I did,” Rutter added.

“Silverstone is the next race and a track I like so hopefully we can get some decent results there.”