Steve Forced to Retire from Bol d'Or
Steve and Kawasaki France’s chance of winning the World Endurance title hinged on a good result from the Bol d’Or 24-hour race at Magny Cours over the weekend but their challenge seemed doomed from the start when the team were forced to enter the pits for a stop go penalty inflicted for inadvertently being late for one of the briefings earlier in the week.
This dropped them down the order somewhat and their chances suffered another blow when the bike ran out of fuel, losing precious time. Finally, in the middle of the night the bike suffered a mechanical failure and that was the end of the race for Steve and the team.
Qualifying had gone well for Kawasaki France whose riders, Steve Plater, Gwen Giabbani and Julien Mazuecos posted some fast times to qualify as second fastest team just two tenths of a second away from the championship leaders SERT who started in pole position.
Mazuecos started the race and slotted into second place but soon dropped of the pace with a tyre issue and when Steve took over the reins after the first hour he was down to seventh place.
But Steve, immediately rectified this and by the 100th lap marker was holding third position.
Then disaster struck when Mazuecos ran out of fuel on his slow down lap and had to push the bike back to the pits. This dropped the team down to the back of the field over 10 laps down on the leaders.
As the race wore on into the night the team began to pull back up the order and by 4am they were circulating well within the top ten.
But just before 5am with Steve at the controls, disaster struck and a mechanical failure put paid to any further action. With no points scored, Steve saw his championship aspirations fly out of the window as the SERT team rode through to finish the race in second place to claim 28 points, sufficient to secure the 2007 World Endurance championship title before the last event, the Doha eight hour race in Qatar on November 10.
Steve returns to domestic action with AIM Yamaha to contest the penultimate round of the 2007 Bennetts British Superbike championship this weekend.
Two free practise sessions take place on Friday with a third 50-minute session on Saturday morning prior to qualifying at 2.30pm.
Racing is set for Sunday with the first of two 20-lap British Superbike races on track at 12.45pm, the second race due to start at 16.23pm. The ITV4 live broadcast window is from 12.30pm – 5.10pm with further coverage from Sky Sports 3 from 7.30pm – 11pm.
BOL d'OR Preview
 Steve is in France this weekend to contest the 24-hour Bol d'Or race at Magny Cours for Kawasaki France. He is part of a three man team challenging for the win in the penultimate round of the World Endurance championship and is currently placed in second place just 32 points behind series leaders, SERT (Suzuki Endurance Racing Team). But with 35 points up for grabs for the race winner the championship is by no means settled.
The Bol d'Or is the last of three 24-hour races left to run on the World Endurance calendar, the final round being the Doha eight-hour race in Qatar on November 10.
A duel between Kawasaki France and SERT is inevitable as both are in with a chance of the title so the race at Magny Cours is expected to be extremely close and competitive.
The line up for the Kawasaki France team is: Steve Plater, Gwen Giabbani and Julian Mazuecos. Kawasaki won at Albacete, finished third behind Suzuki at the Le Mans 24hrs, and second at Oschersleben despite falls by both Giabbani and Mazuecos during the race.
"This is a pivotal point in the championship and we need to secure as good a result as possible. Ideally the win would be the best result for the team but 24 hours is a long time to race and anything can happen in that time scale," said Steve. "We will all be doing our best and hope for good weather and no technical problems to hinder our progress. Having been on the podium on previous occasions at the Bol d'Or I am looking forward to repeating the experience this time. We don't want a repeat of the weather from last year though as heavy and continuous rain left the track surface extremely slippery. A nice, warm, dry weekend will make things much easier for all of us."
Practise and qualifying take place from Wednesday with the race commencing at 3pm on Saturday (2pm British Time) and finishing at 3pm on Sunday.
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