Plater focused on set-up during 2009 TT practice
HM Plant Honda’s Steve Plater is concentrating on setting his bikes up rather than topping the timesheets during practice for the 2009 Isle of Man TT.
Speaking after the fourth practice session on Wednesday evening, the Woodhall Spa racer said his motorcycles are running well and he is now focused on fine tuning them ahead of the first race – the Dainese Superbike TT on Saturday.
Plater did two laps on the HM Plant Honda Superbike before switching to the Padgett’s Honda Superstock machine for another two laps. He completed one final circuit on the superbike.
He was quickly dialled into the legendary Mountain course, and from a standing start posted a lap time of 17m 51.62s – an average lap speed of 126.75mph. He went on to better that and produce his personal best time for his three-year TT campaign of 128.453mph with a lap time of 17m 37.42s.
His best time on the superstock was 18m 17.82s, an average of 123.726mph.
Plater’s final lap, on the superbike, did not reflect his true potential as he was hindered by yellow flags at Ginger Hall because of an accident and then again at the 33rd milestone because of oil on the track.
He said:
‘All three of my bikes are fine, they are not a million miles away, but we are just trying to fine tune a number of things, try different tyres and get myself even more into TT mode.’
‘I was much happier on Tuesday and found my way around so felt more relaxed.’
‘I did get a good lap time in, but really that’s not what we are here for, its only practice and it’s more about finding a good set up and being smooth and clean rather than posting the fastest lap.’
‘I took the Superbike out after the team had made more adjustments and my job was purely to analyse the changes ahead of Thursday practice.’
The fifth practice session is due to get under way at 6.20pm on Thursday.