Eight-time Isle of Man TT race winner Ian Hutchinson will take part in this year’s Monster Energy Supersport TT race after signing with Tsingtao Racing.
The 35-year-old will ride on-board the team’s factory backed MV Agusta F3 675 machine, which has its own unique three cylinder engine with a counter rotating crankshaft – something that is usually seen on Moto GP bikes.
Hutchinson is known for winning the most races at a single TT meeting, back in 2010 when he won five solo races including the Superbike, Supersport and Superstock events.
Hampshire MV Agusta Tsingtao Racing Team Manager Dave Tyson said: “I’m really pleased with the signing of Hutchy for this year’s IOM TT as well as the North-West 200. It gives us a great opportunity to challenge at the front and as we all know he is a TT winner.
“MV Agusta has a winning tradition at the TT and we are going to do everything we can to do that. I know that Giovanni and all the staff at the Italian factory are supporting us and it means we can have a real shot at it.”
Hutchinson will be hoping to add more victories to MV Agusta’s already impressive TT record. The Italian manufacturer won 34 TT races, along with a further 61 podiums between 1952 and 1972.
The Yorkshireman joins a very talented list of riders to have ridden for MV Agusta at the TT, including John Surtees, a six time TT winner, and Giacomo Agostini, who has ten TT race wins to his name.
MV Agusta President Giovanni Castiglioni added: “MV Agustas are indelibly associated with the Isle of Man TT Races and we are looking forward to adding the next chapter in our long and successful history of racing on the Isle of Man. Ian Hutchinson is a legend around the Mountain Course and it is fitting that he is following in some of the great names that have raced MV’s at the TT.”
Qualifying for the 2015 Isle of Man TT gets under way on Saturday May 30, with the RST Superbike and Sure Sidecar races getting the racing action under way one week later, on Saturday June 6.
