Isle of Man TT stars left devastated as all 2020 races cancelled

The 48-year-old was looking forward to adding to his list of successes at the North West 200 in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man TT.

Bridgnorth's Rutter had also been set to race on the Irish roads with new his Bathams Racing team-mate, Richard Cooper.

But following the cancellation of both huge international road race meetings, Rutter, his team and the rest of the motorbike fraternity have been left in limbo.

"I'm shocked by it all, really, but at the same time I think we all saw it coming," he said.

"I didn't want to believe it was happening but hopefully it will all get sorted soon and we can go back to reality again.

"It's hard for everyone but any form of sport is always going to be one of the first things to be cancelled.

"The TT also has people coming from all over the world so we can understand why they've done it."

Rutter has raced at the TT since 1994, and remembers the last time the entire meeting was cancelled in 2001.

"I was racing when the Foot and Mouth disease hit, so I've been through something like this before, but this seems a lot worse. It's not good at all," he said.

"As it stands, the Classic TT is still going ahead but I was a bit surprised they didn't swap them round and race the main TT during August, or even just run part it.

"It seems they have decided to just completely cancel it. We could go on about it all day but it is what it is.

"Another factor is motorbike racers are very good at ending up in hospital, so I suppose you have to look at that side of things too.

"If someone smashed themselves up, it would be another strain on the medics. Even spectators at motorsport events can get injured."

Rutter had planned to race the odd National Superstock 1000 round, raced on the under card of the British Superbike series during 2020, again alongside Cooper.

With the road racing season up in the air, he may focus more on the circuits but even then, the chances of the opening round taking place at Silverstone over the Easter Bank Holiday seem slim.

"At the moment the BSB is still on but we'll have to wait and see, really," he said.

"I'd be surprised if the first two rounds went ahead and we started any early than the middle of May or somewhere around then but nothing's been confirmed yet.

"We'll just do what we can do and it the BSB does go ahead we'll concentrate on that 100 per cent. That's all we can do.

"We were supposed to be flying out to Spain for testing but that's obviously off.

"We're just taking things day by day because there's nothing else we could do."

Fellow TT racer Barry Furber, 35, from Bishop's Castle, said the cancellation was a "devastating blow" for all concerned.

"It's hard to come to terms with at the moment after massive investments in time and money over the last few months," he said.

"Obviously, we don't want to see vulnerable people getting ill and it's important to get this under control.

"All we can do is take each week as it comes and hope the support is still there when it's time to go racing."