Ian Hutchinson: “I get a bit suckered in, I really still want to race here"

Ian Hutchinson was back on the National Superstock grid at last weekend’s Oulton Park BSB, and the 16-time TT winner admitted that he still gets “suckered in” by his competitive desire to race at the short circuit meetings.

Hutchinson finished 10th in the only scheduled Superstock race, a solid result for a rider who has not raced at British Championship level for three years.

Qualifying 15th, he dropped back off the start, but reached ninth place before dropping back to 10th on the final lap.

“It’s been good,” Hutchinson said of the Oulton Park weekend, speaking to Crash.net.

“Obviously, everything has been late with getting the new bike, but it’s [racing Superstock] a good thing for us to do.

“I went a little bit slower in qualifying than I did in practice, which I wasn’t expecting to do so I was further back on the grid.

“I think the end result was good for what we need for the roads.

“I get a bit suckered in and I really still want to race here, I love it. But I haven’t done a race start in British Championship since 2022.

“So I was bad off the line, then getting passed by loads [of riders] into turn one; I think I was 20th on lap one, [and] I got back to ninth.

“Then I thought there was another lap left but there wasn’t, so I got passed into the last corner and I didn’t block it at all because I thought there was another lap left.

“But to finish 10th, it was a good starting point for us from where I was last year.”

Hutchinson, and teammate Mike Browne, will head to the North West 200 this week with the MLav Racing team for the first road racing event for the team put together by Michael Laverty.