Rutter to ride Paton in Lightweight TT

Author: Oli Rushby Posted: 02 Mar 2015

Michael Rutter will ride Paton’s S1 in this year’s BikeNation.co.uk Lightweight TT as veteran Ian Lougher takes on the running of the Italian project.

Rutter, the tenth fastest man to lap the iconic mountain course, will take over the S1 from Olie Linsdell who rode to a credible 6^th place finish aboard the cafe racer-styled machine. 

”I am really excited to be asked to ride the Paton in the Lightweight race”, said Rutter.
“Paton is a small passionate Italian company who are steeped in racing history and renowned for building great motorcycles. The bike looks fantastic, and considering how little testing time Olie had on it last year, due to the last minute homologation checks etc, he still ended up 3rd quickest in practice, and was able to bring it home in 6th position in the race, so I can’t wait to ride it.”

Linsdell’s sixth place came after severely limited testing with the S1 only being homologated at the eleventh hour. The Bedfordshire rider will sit out this year’s TT therefore the running of the Paton project falls to nine-times TT winner Ian Lougher.

“For me as a Team owner it’s a great honor to be asked by such a well respected company like Paton, to run their S1 650cc Twin at this year’s TT race festival.  I have been a big fan of the Italian manufacturer for a long time, and followed their racing exploits for many years through the two stroke era in 500cc GP’s to the present day, where Olie took a fantastic top 6 finish in last year’s race. With so much more development this time around, and with Michael sat in the hot seat, I am sure together we can put Paton back on the rostrum where they belong.”

Rutter made his TT debut in 1994 and has taken four wins in his colourful career, he finished the 2013 BikeSocial.co.uk Lightweight race in third place.

The 43-year-old will focus solely on the roads this year after being unable to secure a ride in the British Superbike Championship, meaning he’ll miss a season for just the second time in 22 years.