Consistent Plater earns another fourth place
The ever-consistent Steve Plater rode a sensible race in tricky conditions to secure his third fourth place finish of the 2009 Isle of Man TT.
Plater took his 600cc HM Plant Honda to fourth in the second Relentless Supersport race on Wednesdsay. The race had been delayed for four hours due to rain in the west of the Isle of Man, and when it got under way at 2pm parts of the circuit were still damp.
Being a relative newcomer to the TT course, Plater was a little nervous as to how the damp conditions would affect his performance.
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 both Glen Helen and Ramsey.
He made up ground on the Mountain section, where the rain had not affected the roads, and completed the lap in seventh.
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. 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 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 second-placed Bruce Anstey.
The final circuit also saw Plater claim the fastest lap of the race with a time of 18m 03.3s – an average speed of 125.384mph. It was also announced that he had won the TT Supporters Club Trophy, awarded to the rider posting the fastest aggregate time in the two Supersport races.
Plater said:
‘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.’