MICHAEL Rutter and the Bathams/SMT Racing team secured their first podium place of the season.

After finishing in fourth place in Sunday’s Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship at Knockhill, a post-race investigation resulted in Rutter and his team being promoted up to third for their maiden podium finish of the season.

Race winner Taylor Mackenzie was involved in a contentious overtaking manoeuvre with reigning champion Josh Elliott which resulted in the latter running off track.

A subsequent investigation following the conclusion of the race resulted in Mackenzie being given a three-position penalty after being deemed to have overtaken Elliott under a yellow flag and in an unsafe manner.

He was subsequently demoted to fourth with Keith Farmer awarded the race win. Ian Hutchinson was moved up to second with Michael given the third place and final podium position for his best result of the season.

Michael Rutter: “Practice and qualifying went really well for me but I didn’t get the greatest of starts and then I had a massive slide at the first corner which lost me a load of places. Everyone in front of me was crashing into each other so it was quite a messy few laps and, for some reason, I had no grip at all. The bike was constantly spinning up and I was perhaps trying too hard so I just couldn’t move forward at all.

“I was stuck at the same pace all race but although the riders in front of me had cleared off, I had a good gap so just concentrated on bringing the bike home.

“We’re in the mix week in, week out and the team did another great job this weekend, so roll on the next round.”