John McGuinness might be the King of the Mountain at the Isle of Man, but Michael Rutter is the King of the Streets at Macau. After leading throughout the qualifying and practice sessions, Rutter rode a dominant 10 lap race to claim his eighth win at the Macau GP.
Virtually uncontested during the road race, Rutter finished to comfortably, despite a late-stage charge by Martin Jessop, who put on a show with his charge to second, after a poor start off the line.
“The team gave me a brilliant bike,” said Rutter. “The crowds have been fantastic. I enjoy coming here and hope it will keep continuing.” Riding for the SMT Racing team on a Honda CBR1000RR, Rutter was teammates with Isle of Man TT star and rival John McGuinness, whose seventh place finish put SMT at the top of Macau’s first-ever Team Award.
Rounding out the podium was Simon Andrews, making the post-race celebrations a strictly British affair. Meanwhile, America’s main man Mark Miller rode to a respectable fifteenth place finish for the Splitlath Redmond team. Full race results are after the jump.
As if we needed another reminder that racing motorcycles is a dangerous sport, Portugal’s Luis Carreira died today from injuries he sustained while crashing during the Macau GP qualifying session. A road race held on public city streets, the Macau GP is similar to the more familiar Isle of Man TT, and attracts many of the same teams and riding stars to the Asian venue.
Riding for the Bennimoto Raider-Cetelem team at Macau, Carreira was a promising TT racer, who started his TT career in 2009 and posted a 13th place finish in the 2011 Isle of Man TT Superstock race. Going down in Fisherman’s Bend, the qualifying session was red-flagged and medical staff rushed to the scene. Unfortunately, Carreira succumbed to his injuries, and died shortly there after.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends. A press release from the Macau GP Committee is after the jump.