Michael Rutter (center) toasts MotoCzysz teammate Mark Miller (left) and Kingston University's George Spence (right) on the 2011 TT Zero podium.
MotoCzysz extends its TT Zero winning streak to two, with Michael Rutter taking the electric exhibition race ahead of teammate Mark Miller. The TT veteran Rutter missed the prestige of marking the first-ever electric powered 100 mph lap, and the attendant £10,000 bounty awarded by the Isle of Man government, by a scant 0.396 mph. A Kingston University entry piloted by George Spence completed the TT Zero podium, with only five of the nine entries completing laps.
A multiple TT podium finisher and North West 200 winner, Rutter quickly overtook his American teammate during the one-lap TT Zero race. Reports state The Blade got his Segway MotoCzysz E1PC up to a 149.5 mph top speed en route to victory.
Said Rutter in an official IOM Press Office press release: “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.”
Rutter’s near 100 mph lap marks a modest improvement over the 96.820 mph best set by the race winning Miller in 2010. The inaugural electric TT race held at the isle, the 2009 TTXGP, saw Ron Barber pilot a Team AGNI bike to victory via a 87.434 mph lap.
The Blade gets up to speed on the MotoCzysz E1PC. Rutter would reach almost 150 mph top speed and just missed setting the first-ever electric-powered 100 mph lap at the Isle.
Spence’s third place results nets Kingston University the £5000 University Prize, awarded to the fastest University entrant. The British research university bested the American effort from MIT (Read more on the MIT EV project in
Backmarker: Old Meets New at the 2011 Isle of Man TT).
2011 TT Zero Results:
1. Michael Rutter (MotoCzysz) 99.604 mph
2. Mark Miller (MotoCzysz) 98.288 mph
3. George Spence (Kingston) 88.435 mph
4. Allan Brew (MIT EVT) 79.163 mph
5. Yoshinari Matsushita (Prozza TT) 69.877 mph
DNF John Burrows (Lightning Motorcycles)
DNF Roy Richardson (Imperial)
DNF Russ Mountford (Brunel)
DNF Dan Kneen (ManTTx)
