Following Steve Plater’s victory for AIM Yamaha at Snetterton the team are ready for the challenge of Mallory Park in round six of the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport championship on Sunday. The 36-year-old Lincolnshire rider switched classes at Snetterton as there was insufficient time to prepare the Yamaha R1 Superbikes after returning from the Isle of Man TT races and Plater opted to ride in the Supersport class instead.
Despite his success at the NW200 and the TT where he won three races in the class this year, it’s been a few years now since Plater rode in the British Supersport championship and we go back as far as 1999 to seek out his last win.
But Plater was quick to adapt to the 600cc Yamaha at Snetterton and recorded the second fastest time in qualifying, going on to take the victory and 25 championship points.
Meanwhile Ian Hutchinson was forced off the track at Snetterton to avoid a fallen rider and re-joined well down the field. Although he did begin to mount a comeback he encountered a few problems, which forced him to eventually retire the AIM Yamaha R6.
Both riders are confident of a strong result at the short and complex Mallory circuit to add to their respective points tally.
Steve Plater – Team Coordinator I need to try and build on my Snetterton result. I jumped on the bike there and soon found that although the R6 went well there are still a few issues to address. Mallory is a short and twisty circuit and will no doubt pose a few problems with set up.
But we have Friday to sort that out and should be on the case for qualifying on Saturday. I am enjoying my time on the 600cc bike and it is encouraging to be in the mix at the front of the field.
Ian is also confident he can pull off a top result and if we can both secure a good grid position then there is no reason why we cannot achieve the results we are aiming for.
Free practice takes place on Friday prior to two 40-minute qualifying sessions on Saturday to determine grid positions for Sunday’s 28-lap race, which is set for a start at 3.3-pm.
The British Eurosport 2 Live broadcast window is: 1pm-2.30pm and 3.30pm-5.15pm.
Picture Credit - Dean Owen
