Senior success yet to sink in for Plater
Steve Plater says it will take time before his historic win in the Pokerstars Senior TT sinks in.
The Woodhall Spa race roared to victory in Friday’s blue riband event of the 2009 Isle of Man TT. Although Plater has already had to turn his attention back to the British Supersport championship, he said he will take some ‘Plater time’ to take in his TT glory.
The HM Plant Honda rider inherited the lead after teammate John McGuinness, who had built a massive lead with a record-brreaking pace, retired on the fourth of the race’s six laps.
Plater had put in a series of strong laps to give him a big advantage over Manxman Conor Cummins, taking the win by almost 20 seconds.
The Senior TT also saw Plater post his fastest lap of the two week festival with a flying lap of 130.490mph, better than the outright lap record set by McGuinness in 2007, but still below the staggering new lap record set by McGuinness on lap two of the 2009 Senior – an awesome 131.578mph.
Plater also picked up the inaugural Joey Dunlop Trophy for the rider with the best overall results of the week with 84 points.
He said:
‘It will perhaps sink in later just exactly what I have achieved; its stuff dreams are made of. It’s unfortunate that John went out, but that’s what happens in racing. He would have been there at the end for sure, but I was just trying my hardest to do a really good out lap as Neil Tuxworth has been whinging and whining at me all week for being an old lady on the first lap! That’s what I was concentrating on and then just seeing how the result went from there.’
‘I was watching my pit boards as I knew Connor was only about 10 seconds away from me, my dad was doing the boards at Ramsey so he will be desperate to get back now, bless him. It seemed like 40 miles from the Bungalow down to the finish on that last lap, it was endless.’
‘This achievement today will finally sink in next week as I have to turn my attention back to short circuits and the British Supersport Championship. I just need a bit of Plater time on my own to take it all in. But I said to the guys at HM Plant Honda, as soon as the chequered flag falls here I will be thinking about winning at Snetterton next Sunday.’