Love and the two wheels of his Ducatti makes the world go around for Michael Rutter. And on both counts Macau has been lucky for the 30-year-old Englishman, who yesterday won his fourth Grand Prix title in emphatic fashion.
'Macau has been good to me. I met the woman of my dreams here and now I have won four Grand Prix titles,' said Rutter, who established a new race lap record as he cruised to a comfortable win on his 998 Renegade Racing Ducatti finishing the 15-lap race in 37 minutes and 43.456 seconds.
Rutter, who began in pole position, led from start to finish and his margin of victory was considerable. Second-placed countryman John McGuinness was 5.5 seconds behind while another Briton, Brian Morrison, was third, almost 12 seconds adrift.
The fate of the race was decided in the fourth lap when Rutter stamped his seal when he smashed the old lap record of 2:29.173 set by McGuinness in 2001 by almost a second. His new time was 2:28.233. Translated into real terms, it meant the outcome was done and dusted quite early in the race.
'Yes, I pushed real hard,' laughed McGuinness when asked if he had stood any chance in catching Rutter. 'When the gap between him and me kept growing, I decided to settle for a safe second.'
Only the legendary Ron Haslam has now won more titles than Rutter. 'Rocket' Ron won six Macau titles in a phenomenal run during the 1980s. Maybe we will soon have to add the honorific 'Rocket' to Rutter's name, too, now that he has added a fourth win to those he won in 1998, 2000 and 2002.
So which of these wins is most memorable, he was asked. 'Every win is special. It gets more and more important, and more special as the years go by,' said Rutter. But it was before his glory days in Macau - back in 1997 - that Rutter met Sandrine who has borne him two children, both girls, Juliette, four, and Cecilia, two. 'She was on a working holiday with one of the teams. We are not married as yet, but might as well be,' grinned Rutter. 'She is not here this weekend. She is back home looking after the girls. Maybe I'll bring all of them to Macau one day.'