Rutter Second, McGuiness Third...

Stuart Easton took his first ever Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix victory yesterday, denying six-times winner Michael Rutter a record-breaking seventh success.

It looked as though Rutter, on the Discover Ireland NW200 Ducati 1200, was going to be handed first place when two of the fancied front-runners went out with mechanical problems.

First Australian Cameron Donald (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) was forced to stop on lap five with a mechanical problem after dramatically taking the lead on the opening lap from Rutter. That left Easton (Doosan Honda) in the lead by almost three seconds from Rutter, and pulling away.

Then Conor Cummins, the 22-year-old Manxman, who had broken the qualifying lap record to take pole position on the grid for the 15-lap race, suffered a mechanical breakdown on lap eight when looking as if he might prove a threat to the two men ahead of him.

With him out, Rutter realised he was now closing on the 25-year-old Scottish racer and made a determined effort to catch him in the hopes of forcing him to make a mistake.  He reduced the gap to less than a fifth of a second with three laps to go, but Easton was not going to give away his debut victory easily, and charged on to take the chequered flag by a 2.7 second margin.

“I had a problem with my elbow but that had nothing to do with me not being able to pass young Stuart.  He rode superbly and thoroughly deserved his victory,” said a philosophical Rutter after the race.

Almost 30 seconds behind Rutter was John McGuinness on the Ventaxia UK Honda who lost sight of the leaders after making a sluggish start and was never able to catch them after that.

Luis Carreira (Benimoto Suzuki Yoshimura 1000) was an impressive fourth, his best ever result in the Far East Classic, snatching the place away on the final lap from American Michael Barnes (Ventaxia UK Honda). Ulsterman Stephen Thompson (Sloan Developments Honda) was sixth over the line.

Keith Amor won the Supersport 600 class by taking 11th place overall, two places in front of Frenchman Gerald Muteau (Halfen - Team of Paris Triumph 675). Joao Fernandes became the first local rider to take a podium finish in the event with third spot in the 600 class, but the 31-year-old needed pain-killing injections to cope with injuries sustained in a recent accident at the Zhuhai Circuit in China.

Top Six Finishers

6: S Thompson (Sloan Honda) 37:55.314

Yamaha Austria's Thomas Hinterreiter and Rico Penzkofer failed to record a result. Hinterreiter was still suffering form his Maco Moto crash at Qatar last week and Penzkofer crashed with three other bikes at the Lisboa bend. He was not seriously injured. Another faller was popular Brit Guy Martin, who was ruled out of the race after crashing in practice and knocking himself unconscious.

Stuart Easton, Macau Grand Prix, 2008

Full details of the race are available at:
www.macau.grandprix.gov.mo/gp/55/result.php?lang=en

General information about the Macau Grand Prix is available at: 
www.macau.grandprix.gov.mo/app/home/gp55/en

Got some World Endurance news? send it to info@redleg.co.uk