Isle of Man TT Races star Michael Rutter narrowly missed out on cracking the prestigious 100mph mark for an electric bike for the first time in today’s SES TT Zero Race. He took his Segway MotoCzysz machine to an Electric bike record 99.64mph lap, breaking the record that his team-mate Mark Miller set last year but narrowly missing out on the £10,000 prize fund allocated by the Isle of Man Government for the first electric bike team to achieve a 100mph average speed for the 37¾ mile circuit. 2010 TT Zero Race winner Mark Miller went off in the Number 1 position from Glencrutchery Road with riders starting at 10 second intervals in the time trial race. He was followed by his team-mate Michael Rutter who had passed him on the road by the first checkpoint at Glen Helen with John Burrrows, riding for Lightning Motorcycles running in third. Russ Mountford (Brunel X Team) and George Spence for the ION Horse Ecotricity Kingston University outfit were next on the road, the first two of four University outfits competing for the £5000 University Prize. Japanese debut outfit Team Prozza and leading American University Massachusetts Institute of Technology were next on the roads with Dan Kneen (ManTTx) and Roy Richardson (Imperial) completing the field. The nine machines that started all made it to Ballaugh Bridge, with Rutter extending his lead to 102.853mph, maintaining a gap of 10 seconds on corrected time with both Segway Racing MotoCzysz outfits running together on the road. John Burrows, George Spence and Russ Mountford made up the top five with all nine machines reaching the second checkpoint although Dan Kneen and Russ Mountford were reported to have dropped out by Sulby Bridge and Glenduff respectively. Rutter topped the speed trap times at Sulby, posting an impressive 149.5mph, and he later revealed in the post race press conference that he thought that the bike could have gone even quicker but held back to conserve power. The MotoCzysz pair still topped the leaderboard by Ramsey hairpin but were joined in the top three by George Spence, the Kingston outfit posting an impressive average of 95mph to Ramsey, and the same trio held the top three positions at Cronk-ny-Mona with Brew, Matsushita and Burrows the only other outfits still on the course. Rutter was the first to finish and agonizingly clocked 99.604mph for the lap (22.43.68) to narrowly miss out on being the first electric bike rider to achieve a ton, 54 years after Bob McIntyre achieved it on a conventional bike. He was followed home by Mark Miller (98.288mph) and George Spence (88.435mph), who took the University Prize for Kingston. Allan Brew (MIT) and Yoshinari Matsushita completed the top five with John Burrows also achieving a finish by pushing his machine over the line. Michael commented in the post race press conference: “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.” More, from a press release issued by Pirelli: TWO OUT OF THREE FOR PIRELLI AS GARY JOHNSON TAKES FIRST TT VICTORY IN SUPERSPORT THRILLER Pirelli Shod Electric Bike Nudges The Magic 100MPH at Isle of Man TT Isle of Man, UK, June 10, 2011 Pirelli rider Gary Johnson today took his first ever TT win this week as Guy Martin took third at the Isle of Man event. Pirelli earned two spots on the Supersport podium, once again demonstrating the Italian tire brand’s great passion for this unique event. Johnson controlled the Monster Energy Supersport 600 race from the start to win by 8 seconds and was immediately swamped by well-wishers, including the legendary Giacomo Agostini. “That was a brilliant race;” said Johnson, “I tried to stay a foot from the hedges like I always do and straight-line it. I made a break from the start and looked at the pit boards to keep the gap steady. The Pirellis worked so well on this Supersport bike from the first to last lap, were consistent all the way through and I don’t think I was too hard on them either. I just tried to stay smooth. What an awesome feeling!” A clearly frustrated Guy Martin was aggravated at having to slow for a red flag as he logged his twelfth podium at the TT and made it two out of three on the ‘box’ running the Supersport spec Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa tires. Manx hero Conor Cummins continued his impressive comeback as he finished sixth in a quality packed field. Ben Wylie finished seventh on his YZF-R6 and James Hillier ninth as he continues a fantastic week on his trio of Bournemouth Kawasaki’s. “What a fantastic first win for Gary, he’s shown terrific speed all week and this is so deserved for Gary, Phil Reed and the whole team,” said Pirelli UK’s Racing Manager Jason Griffiths. “With Guy also on the podium this has been a great race for us and the Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa tires remained consistently strong through all four laps.” Pirelli Shod Electric Bike Nudges 100MPH Mark at TT Pirelli BSB star Michael Rutter took his Segway MotoCzysz machine to an Electric bike record 99.6mph lap, just missing out on a £10,000 award for the first triple figure lap, at the Isle of Man TT today. His team-mate Mark Miller made it a Pirelli 1-2 in this innovative race event. Michael, who choose a Pirelli Diablo Superbike ‘slick’ rear and Pirelli Diablo SuperCorsa treaded front tire, remarked, “99.6 mph, 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.” The machine also hit an impressive 149.5mph on the Sulby Speed Trap at the hands of Rutter, who is more used to his 200mph Riders Bathams Ducati which he runs on Pirelli tires in both the TT and British Superbike Championship. Pirelli tires were chosen by the majority of the grid as their steel belt construction is renowned for their low rolling resistance, essential in this power sapping electric race. “Michael is a wily old fox and I know he will be gutted to have missed the 100mph, but he looked like he really enjoyed it and logged another TT win,” Jason Griffiths, Pirelli’s UK Racing Manager, added. “This new technology is so interesting to bike manufacturers and indeed our engineers are also intrigued back at the factory.” Pirelli Tire North America designs, develops, manufactures and markets tires for passenger vehicles in both the original equipment and replacement markets as well as markets and distributes tires for motorcycles and motorsports. Located in Rome, Georgia, Pirelli’s Modular Integrated Robotized System (MIRS) employs state-of-the-art technology to manufacture tires for both export and domestic markets. For more information please visit www.us.pirelli.com.