Rutter Blog: “The Worx Suzuki can be front row. But can I?”

I’ve had a great time at Thruxton today on the Wrox Suzuki. It’s different to what I’ve been used to riding but we were sixth in the first session and eight in the second and I’m confident there’s much more to come.

We ran fourth for ages but stuck to the same hard-compound tyre so we could try lots of different things with the bike just to get me comfortable and help find a god set-up that suits me.

It’s a brilliant bike. The power delivery is so smooth, in fact the whole bike feels that way, braking, suspension, handling. It just feels like a proper race bike and it’s only me that’s lacking in this combination right now.

It’s definitely a bike that can be on the front row here at Thruxton but the big question mark is whether I can put it there. It’s all down to me and the more laps I get on it, the better it’s going to be.

And, if I’m being totally honest, it’ll take the first race to feel 100% at one with the bike, to have it feel like it’s really ‘my bike.’

I see some people on the web sites have been questioning whether I’m committed to this weekend.  The first thing I said to Jack (Valentine – Worx Suzuki team boss) when I got here was ‘the TT is next week.’  In other words I’m concentrating on BSB this weekend.

This weekend is more important to me than anything else right now. The TT is and always has been, a fun thing for me. It’s also bloody hard to win a TT, and while I’ll be trying, it is, like I say, more about enjoying the experience of racing on the Mountain course.

But I still believe I can win a BSB race and that’s what I’m here to try and do. Yeah, make no mistake, this is serious.