BSB Round 9 Oulton Park

Steve rode to a brace of 11th places at Oulton Park on Sunday, safely bringing his Rizla Suzuki home in each race of the ninth round
Of the 2006 Bennetts British Superbike championship and trebling his total points tally to 15.

Steve was deputising for the injured James Haydon and has himself just returned to action after recovering from a shoulder injury sustained at Mallory in June.

Qualifying went well for Steve who spent much of Friday getting to grips with his new steed and he posted some respectable times to bag a fourth row start to Sunday’s two 17-lap affairs.

“Obviously 16th isnt really where I wanted to be. I struggled to get my lap times down and found that posting a 1m 37s lap time was like finding the perfect woman – virtually impossible!” said Steve. “I struggled all the way but when I put my final qualifying tyre on it all came together and I posted a 1m 37.2s on the final lap to jump from 22nd up to 16th. It didn’t feel like a good lap, I lost the front at Lodge and very nearly went down so I was surprised to find it was my quickest lap.”

Race one saw Plater get away to a good start to move up into 13th position before forging ahead to take the chequered flag in 11th place – his best result of the current campaign.

“By lap 10 I began to feel tired. I haven’t ridden a bike in anger for over six weeks and it takes a while to get back into it.”

The second race saw Steve embroiled in a six-way battle for eighth place, which continued all the way to the finish line with Steve securing 11th place once again.

“I am happy with two 11th places today,” said Steve. “This was my first race finish since I won the North West 200 back in May. I only did 400 yards at Mallory before going down and I haven’t ridden since then. To bring the Rizla Suzuki home to two points finishes on my first outing for the team has to be a good result for me.”

The next round is at Croft near Darlington on August 13 but Steve has yet to learn whether he will be on the Rizla Suzuki or if he is to return to his regular ride with JJL/UK Diggers.