Plagued with niggling problems with the AIM Yamaha Supersport machine throughout free practice and qualifying, the Woodhall Spa ace put the gremlins behind him to claim a second row start to his race in seventh position and as the lights went out he was quick to get off the line to move into fifth place at the first turn.



Just as he moved past Rob Frost into fourth the pace car was deployed which halted further progress and when the car left the circuit Frost briefly regained his position before crashing out of the race at Luffield.



Plater made steady progress and eventually passed the soon to be crowned champion Glen Richards on lap eight. The top four riders pulled clear of the pack and Plater looked to hunt down second place. But he made a slight mistake at the hairpin and lost the tow. He crossed the finish line in third place for his fourth podium finish of the current campaign and moved up the order from eighth to sixth place in the rider standings.



“I am satisfied with third place today,” said the ever-smiling Steve Plater. “We had a lot of problems throughout practice and qualifying but we managed to make a step forward in second qualifying and morning warm-up to make the bike good enough to get onto the podium, although we were never in a position to go for the win. But we can now look forward to Brands Hatch and hopefully we can win again there.”



The final round of the series is on the short and technical Brands Hatch circuit on October 12 when Plater will be looking to add to his clutch of podium finishes.



Plater is currently in talks with various teams regarding the British Championship, World Endurance, plus the Isle of Man TT and the North West 200 and is hoping to be in a position to finalise his 2009 plans by the end of October.