Despite leading the race for some considerable time, Steve Plater was not able to secure the victory he deserved at the end of the six-hour World Endurance race at Albacete in Spain.
But he did finish in a credible fourth place even though both his team mates, Steve Martin and Igor German, suffered crashes during their stint on the Yamaha Austria Race Team (YART) machine on Saturday.
As the race got under way it was Plater, of
Woodhall Spa, who ran across the pit lane for the Le Mans-style start.
The weather had taken a turn for the worse and the rain was coming down in torrents but Plater got his head down and after four laps was leading the field. He held the lead throughout his one-and-a-half hour stint before handing over to Martin.
Crashes for both Martin and German were a setback for the team but they were still able to maintain fourth place at the changeover, with Plater taking over the reins for the last 80 minutes to bring the bike home safely in fourth. Plater said: “The rain teemed down throughout the whole six hours. We also had the pace car out for a while because of oil on the track and that, coupled with the rain, did spoil things for all of us.
“I won here last year and I was hoping to repeat that this time, but it just didn’t work out for us. But under the circumstances I am happy enough with fourth place.”
Plater now heads to Ireland with AIM Yamaha to contest this Saturday’s annual North West 200 races where he has won the Superbike race on three previous occasions.
The full article contains 294 words and appears in Sleaford Standard newspaper.
