2011 Isle of Man TT
For the third consecutive year, electric motorcycle racing was part of the action at Isle of Man TT. And the man who stole the prestigious TT in Thursday’s SES TT Zero Race was Michael Rutter on the Segway MotoCzysz.
Rutter was not only chasing firs first IOMTT win, but also the £10,000 award allocated by the Isle of Man Government for the first electric bike team to achieve a "Ton" on the 37.73-mile Mountain Course, which is an average speed of 100 mph.
But Rutter just missed the historical IOMTT mark, and posted a 99.604 mph; the first gas-powered bike to reach a Ton occurred 54 years ago by Bob McIntyre on a Gilera in the 1957 IOMTT.
Joining Rutter on the podium of the five-lap SES TT Zero Race was his IOMTT teammate, 2010 TT Zero Race-winner Mark Miller (98.288 mph), who started in the number-one position, and George Spence on the ION Horse Ecotricity Kingston Unversity bike (88.435 mph).
Michael Rutter (Segway MotoCzysz IOMTT) says: "99.6mph – that’s the story of my life. I tried to conserve battery life and stay smooth. It’s a totally different way of riding, but I really enjoyed it. We only saw the bike on Wednesday, so I think if we had more time there would be more to come set-up wise."
2011 SES TT Zero Race Results, June 9
- Michael Rutter / 2011 MotoCzysz E1PC / Segway Racing MotoCzysz
- Mark Miller / 2011 MotoCzysz E1PC / Segway Racing MotoCzysz
- George Spence / ION HORSE 2011 / Ecotricity Kingston
- AllanBrew / BMW / MIT EVT
- Yoshinari Matsushita / Prozza TT Zero – 11 / Team Prozza
