By Declared 2019 Suncity Group Macau Grand Prix winner Michael Rutter, International road race victories total presently stands at 30.
RC213V-S Honda mounted Rutter, ninth Guia Circuit triumph takes Honda’s total of two wheel successes at Macau to 16.
MGM Bathams team mate Peter Hickman, although missing out in unfortunate fashion on a fourth Macau GP victory, still expanded his road race top three finishes total for 2019 to an incredible 14.
Additionally Hickman has now amassed over the past three years no less than 24 International road race top three finishes.
Photo credit: ID/Sports Bureau of Macao SAR Government
Confirmed as third in the twice red flagged Macau GP, David Johnson took his International road race top three finishes collection into triple figures.
Australian star Johnson’s maiden top three placing at Macau, was Paul Bird Motorsport’s only non BSB rostrum finish from 2019.
Alongside Johnson, additional racers to claim personal best Macau GP finishes included Davey Todd (4th), Craig Neve (14th) and Xavier Denis (15th).
Half of the top ten finishers from last year’s race were S1000RR BMW mounted, illustrating again the competitiveness, proven quality of a machine which has established itself in recent years as a true giant of International road racing.
Still the last non British winner at the Macau Grand Prix, is Switzerland’s Andreas Hofmann, who was victorious in 1997.
Suzuki who had just one representative in the form of Derek Sheils (BE Racing In Conjunction with Richardson Kelly Racing), have now gone 29 years since securing victory spoils at Macau, having last tasted success on the Guia circuit in 1991 with former Grand Prix racer Didier De Radigues.
It’s now forty one years since Japan’s Sadao Asami banked his first Macau GP triumph. Asami is one of only seven riders to have secured at least three victories on the technical, unrelenting Guia course.
Words by Stevie Rial
