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Steve Plater New King Of Macau
Steve Plater was acclaimed King
of Macau after winning the Macau Grand Prix for the second year
in succession. His AIM teammate Steve Allan won the Supersport
600 class, making it a double celebration for the team who has
gone into the record books as the first team to win both the
Superbike and Supersport races at the same time.
 Plater, from Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire
had completed first qualifying on provisional pole but was forced
out of the final session on Friday with a misfire to the AIM
Yamaha R1. Although he was unable to post a competitive time
in the final session, his previous time was sufficient to claim
fourth place on the grid for Saturday's 15-lap race.
"I was under the lap record in morning warm-up," said
Plater. "And knew I could lap quicker in the race once half
the fuel load had gone so am feeling confident. As long as the
misfire doesn't return I should be there or thereabouts and although
I don't like to make predictions about the result, if I don't
win today then whoever does will have to earn it!!"
As the lights heralded the start it was John McGuinness who got
the hole shot but Plater was quick to anticipate the lights and
moved straight into third place before passing Michael Rutter
at the fast Mandarin corner and then attacked McGuinness for
the race lead.
"I didn't want John to take charge of the race," said
Plater. "So I passed him at San Francisco Hill and was able
to control the pace from then on."
Lap two saw McGuinness regain the lead and the pair began to
pull away from the pursuing pack. But Plater used every inch
of the track in an effort to stick with the multi-TT winner and
forged back ahead at the hairpin on lap three.
"I put in three very fast laps, all a second under the existing
record but John stuck with me," said the 35-year-old race
ace.
Steve held onto his slender lead for the remainder of the race,
the gap between himself and McGuinness remaining under a second.
But on the final lap the pair encountered some backmarkers as
they approached the hairpin. Plater timed it to perfection, attacking
the backmarkers at just the right place and shot past and onto
the finish where he took the chequered flag for his second win
in as many years with a four second advantage over McGuinness.
"I knew we'd come across back markers at the end
so prepared to attack in the right places leaving me a gap at
the end and it worked to perfection," said a jubilant Steve
Plater. "I suffered with arm pump throughout the race due
to my injuries from Qatar last week, which made it very hard
to feel the throttle and front brake lever. But I managed to
relax wherever possible so I remained strong till the end. This
is a mega end to season for me and also for AIM and Yamaha who
have won both the Superbike and Supersport classes, which I think
is the first time a team has won both!"
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