Plater had been on form throughout the weekend and held pole in final qualifying until the session was stopped because of a fire in the campsite which saw smoke billowing across the track along Park Straight. As the session continued Plater was caught out by a cold tyre and slid off at Barn Corner. Unable to improve his lap times he was relegated to third place for a front row start to Sunday’s planned 16-lap race.

As the race got underway Plater was keen to get started and nearly incurred a penalty for a jump-start. But the race was red-flagged because of a two-rider crash at Charlies on the first lap.

The race re-started and ran over 14 laps. This time Plater made no mistake at the start and slotted straight into second place behind Hudson Kennaugh.

By lap five he had taken the lead with series leader Glen Richards following through. Richards began to challenge for the lead and eventually made his way past Plater on lap eight.

But Plater was not to be denied his home win and stuck with Richards making his move along Park Straight to regain the lead before the chequered flag.

Steve said: “I dropped my pace a little bit to try and conserve my tyres and then Glen (Richards) came past. I just followed him and bided my time.”

Steve remains in seventh place but gains ground on Chris Martin in sixth and is just six points adrift. But because of a date clash with the World Endurance Championship Plater will miss the next round of the British Supersport series at Croft on September 14 and will have it all to do in the penultimate round of the series at Silverstone on September 28.