Steve on the Podium at Magny Cours

As part of a three-man team riding for Kawasaki France, Steve rode a blinder in atrocious conditions to bring the bike home in third place in the final round of the World Endurance championship, the Bol d’Or 24-hour race at Magny Cours in France on Sunday.

Steve was the rider chosen by the team to start the race after completing the qualifying sessions in fourth place. The weather affected the outcome of qualifying as heavy rain hampered their progress.

“I have never ridden anywhere so slippery,” said Steve. “People were going down all around me this morning so I settled for a safe time. I am the only one from our team not to crash!”

As race day approached the weather improved and Steve was optimistic of a good result. But he didn’t get away well from the pit lane Le Mans style start and found himself down in seventh place. But he soon settled down and began to reel in the riders ahead moving through to fourth place, which the team continued to hold for much of the 24 hours.

Steve returned to the pit garage at the end of his one-hour stint for refuelling and a change of rider. This was repeated every hour through the day and night with Patrick Piot (France) and Joshua Brookes (USA) taking their turn on the bike on a two hours off and one hour on rota.

By 10am the next day the rain returned sending the teams scurrying into the pits for wet weather tyres. The heavy rain continued making the track difficult to read particularly as fatigue was creeping into play.

“It’s like ice out there now,” said Steve. “The track surface is so slippery in some places its virtually impossible to stay upright.”

But the team soldiered on and eventually made up ground to take third place with two hours to go. As the final hour approached the bike was handed back to Steve who was to finish the 24-hour marathon and he brought the bike over the finish line for a fine third place for the second time in his career.

“I am so tired now,” said Steve. “But really pleased to finish on the podium. We are only a small team and were up against the big factory Suzuki and Yamaha squads so we did well to get third. In 24 hours anything can happen from crashes to mechanical breakdowns but although we had our moments at times the crew did a wonderful job to keep the bike on track and we have repaid them with this result. All I want now is to get some sleep. You cant really sleep in your off-bike time as its too noisy and the adrenalin is pumping so I need to find a nice quiet place to recharge my batteries before I return to the UK.”