Island Racer 2010 - Steve Plater
Feature heading

STEVE PLATER: SENIOR CITIZEN
Year one: Learn. Year two: Win Supersport Race. Year three: Win the senior.
Apprenticeship served, and how. But there’s still one or two more things on the Island wishlist...

Words: Tony Carter Pics: Stephen Davison/Pacemaker Press

THIS is getting ridiculous.
By rights, Steve Plater shouldn’t have one TT winner’s trophy to his name, let alone two. And he certainly shouldn’t be able to count the Senior TT among them in the three visits to the Island that he’s had so far. These things just don’t happen for racers at the world’s toughest race track. It has been written before that Steve Plater is arguably the most complete motorcycle racer on the planet.
Oh yes, there’s plenty of superstars around but Plater’s a different kettle of smoked kipper entirely. A multiple winner in World Endurance, NorthWest, Macau, British Championship and a pretty mean cup of tea maker, Steve stakes a claim to the ‘most complete’ title with some authority.

It was the case last year when not only did he get second place in the Superbike TT race and won the Senior but also took the honours as the King of the British Supersport Championship for the mighty HM Plant Honda team. According to Plater though, the ingredients were all there: “2009 was mega for me, it was great to get the offer to race with Honda, not just for the British championships but for the roads too. As far as I’m concerned, and any rider in the paddock is, HM Plant Honda is the best team.

"THE MORE I’M MAKING JOHN REACT TO ONE OF MY LAP TIMES, THE MORE CHANCE HE’S GOT OF MAKING A MISTAKE. I DON’T MEAN A DEVASTATING MISTAKE, I MEAN RUNNING ON SOMEWHERE WHICH WE’VE ALL DONE AND HE’S DONE IN THE PAST... PUTTING HIM UNDER PRESSURE IS THE PLAN BECAUSE, IN MY OPINION, UNTIL RECENTLY JOHN’S NEVER BEEN UNDER PRESSURE AT THE TT AND THAT’S WHERE HE’S BEEN ABLE TO PERFORM AT HIS BEST, BUT WHEN HE’S UNDER PRESSURE LIKE AT THE NORTHWEST AND MACAU THAT’S WHEN HE CAN CRUMBLE A LITTLE BIT IN HIS PERFORMANCE"

On the podium“There’s a reason why John McGuinness is here too, he’s the legend and rightly so and that’s where he wants to be, with HM Plant, so he’s here and it’s good for me to be back with Honda and alongside John for 2010 too.” A strong line-up for this year’s TT from the HM Plant boys then.
Arguably two of the quickest men out there on proven machinery that’s up to the job (bar any problems again like the ones that stopped McG winning the Senior last year for what would now be a running total of 16 victories). But how does Plater see the set-up between him and the mighty John? Is one of the reasons for Plater’s astonishing improvement down to sharing a garage with the other fella?...

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