Plater wins Supersport thriller ahead of title rival McConnell

British Superbike Press Release

HM Plant Honda's Steve Plater took a thrilling race victory in one of the toughest-fought Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport Championship races in recent history at Croft to stay just ahead of Billy McConnell in the chase for the crown.  

The HM Plant Honda rider had made life difficult for himself with a poor run in qualifying that left him starting from the third row of the grid, but in the cooler conditions of raceday he gambled on a harder compound tire, and that paid off.

Pole-starter McConnell had made the break running ahead of Triumph riding James Westmoreland and local favorite Ian Hutchinson on the Padgetts Honda while Plater ran back in seventh.

McConnell had the edge, but not by much and Westmoreland was piling on the pressure, his cause helped by the three lap intervention of the Safety Car after Robbie Brown had tipped off. 

That closed the pack, and briefly Westmoreland nosed ahead, but McConnell hit back. Westmoreland breezed ahead on the eleventh lap with McConnell then having to fend off Ben Wilson with Dan Linfoot charging into contention ahead of Hutchinson and Plater, but soon it was all change.

Plater was lining them up and swooped through to fifth next time around, and then picked off a further two places to be running third on lap 13, ahead of McConnell while out front Westmoreland was holding off Wilson.

Plater took his Lincolnshire rival Wilson to be running second and on the penultimate lap he was running out front. Behind him McConnell was on the charge, relegating Wilson into third place and closing in on Plater, but the win was just out of his reach.

Plater's third victory of the season has extended his lead in the standings to seven points over McConnell in the title stakes. He said: "We had issues through practice and qualifying and then into the morning warm-up. 

“We talked to other Honda teams, but I decided to go my own way and went for a harder rear tyre, it took time to work, but then it was time to rock 'n roll.  I knew where to attack and planned it all out, you have to plan four corners in advance here," added Plater.