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STEVE PLATER NETS FOURTH PLACE IN JUNIOR TT

Author: Helen Pask
Posted on: Wednesday, Jun 10 2009



The weather played its part in the results as rain left parts of the circuit drenched while other sections were bone dry. The officials delayed the start until the rain cleared and after a long delay which left the riders kicking their heels for over three hours the race finally got underway at 2pm.

Being a relative newcomer to the TT course Plater was a little nervous as to how the damp conditions would affect his performance and said: “I think everybody is a little nervous as to how wet it is between Appledene through to Ballaugh and I think we will see some very different lines. But we will just have to suck it and see and approach it with a bit of caution.”

As the race finally got underway the times at the first check point at Glen Helen reflected the wet conditions with sector times down considerably.

Plater went through the sector fairly quickly but was more cautious than some of the more experienced riders and was eighth fastest through Glen Helen and also Ramsey check point. But he made up ground on the mountain where the rain had not affected the roads and completed the lap in seventh position.

As he began the second lap the Woodhall Spa ace was still cautious on the approach to Glen Helen and lost time, dropping back to ninth but by the time he came in for his refuelling stop at the end of the lap he was up to sixth place.

Lap three saw him move up to fourth and begin to reel in Conor Cummins on time and on the final lap Plater was up to full speed and completed the race in fourth place, just three seconds away from Cummins who was third and five seconds behind Bruce Anstey who took second.

The final lap saw Plater claim the fastest lap of the race with a time of 18m 03.3s – 125.384mph and it was also announced that he has won the TT Supporters Club Trophy which is awarded to the rider posting the fastest aggregate time in the two Supersport 600 races.

“It was very wet out there and a lot of flies as well so I wasn’t willing to push any harder. The conditions did get better as time went on but it didn’t dry completely so we had to proceed with caution through the wet bits.

“I am a bit disappointed as I was only three seconds away from third and five seconds from second place.”

Steve sees further action in his final race of the week, the high profile Senior TT on Friday starting at 1.15pm



Pic credit Wally Walters shows Steve at the start of his Supersport race


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