A race for the ages: Michael Rutter and Phillip McCallen reflect on legacy of Macau Motorcycling Grand Prix
The superstar duo take a trip down memory lane before 50th edition of race this weekend over the famed Guia Circuit
The Macau bug bit Michael Rutter at a very early age. While the British rider has since gone on to carve his name in the annals of the event – with eight Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix titles, so far – Rutter was still a child of around just five or six when he first caught the action, from so far away.
It was in the living room of his father and one-time racer Tony Rutter’s Wordsley home, with the television on and his heroes racing there in front of him, that Rutter’s destiny was determined.
As he grew-up, Rutter kept track of who was racing and who was winning in Macau each year, with the hope that he could one day test his own skills across the tricky Guia Circuit.
And the chance finally came in 1994, when the British racer was 22 years old.
“Coming in that first time I knew very little about the city,” says Rutter. “I’d seen it on TV before. My dad had raced everywhere else in the world, but he’d never been.
“When I finally got there, well, there’s no words for it, really. It’s just so different to anywhere else in the world. It’s just a special place and you feel that the moment your feet hit the ground.”