Kingswinford's Michael Rutter was left frustrated along with the rest of the British Superbike rivals as the first round of this year's Championship fell victim to the poor weekend weather.

The opening round at Brands Hatch was called off on Sunday morning following the heavy overnight snow that had hit the Kent circuit.

Rutter had been handily placed to make a major impact in the season opener on his new North West 200 Ducati.

Despite his lack of preparation time on the bike, Rutter was generally up with the pace of his rivals in the build-up to the race.

In free practise on the Friday, he had posted the fifth fastesttime.

In the Saturday qualifying he secured a place on the second row of the grid with a time of one minute 26.974 seconds - the eighth fastest.

That was just over a second slower than pacesetter Shane Byrne who led the qualifiers on his Ducati with a time of one minute 25.832 seconds.

Rutter will now bid to get his season off to a flying start at Thruxton Park on April 20.

10:06am Thursday 10th April 2008

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