Less
than 3 hours after finishing what he thought was in an excellent
second place, Lincolnshire’s Steve Plater was awarded the win in the
first Relentless Supersport race after original race winner Bruce
Anstey was sensationally disqualified from the race results. Anstey
had dominated proceedings on his Relentless by TAS Suzuki to ‘win’
by over 20 seconds but the exhaust cam measurement was found to be
illegal to that what was homologated and, in scenes reminiscent of
2006 when Ian Hutchinson was excluded from the runners up spot, the
Kiwi was taken off the results sheet and the win awarded to Plater.
Thus, the AIM Racing Yamaha rider, the best newcomer of 2007, took a
fairytale first ever TT win by 3.39 seconds with John McGuinness and
Keith Amor giving Honda second and third spot on the podium.
With the morning mist having cleared, conditions were perfect for
racing but there was drama almost as soon as the race had begun with
Guy Martin again out of luck, the Hydrex Bike Animal Honda rider
reported as having pulled in at the Highlander. This mattered little
to Anstey though and at Glen Helen he was 1.7seconds to the good
with Ian Hutchinson going well in second ahead of McGuinness, Ryan
Farquhar, Amor and Ian Lougher. Morning race winner Cameron Donald
was down the order in 12th but Anstey was charging ahead and he
ended the lap a stunning 12 seconds clear. A flying Amor relegated
McGuinness to third with Farquhar, Hutchinson and Lougher filling
the top six places.
Anstey was in a class of his own at the front of the field and it
showed on the 2nd lap as he broke Martin’s year old lap record with
a speed of 125.372mph to extend his lead even further. Ahead of
McGuinness on the road, the 38-year old had the race sewn up and he
duly completed the 4 laps for what he though was his 7th TT win. All
eyes subsequently fell on the battle for second with Amor and
McGuinness exchanging places on a number of occasions before the
13-times winner edged ahead.
However, the Morecambe man was suffering from a broken steering
damper and no sooner had he seen off the challenge of Amor, then he
had to keep an eye on Plater. With oil on his visor and screen,
McGuinness was almost powerless to respond and Plater, seventh on
the first lap, turned a 10 second deficit into a 3.39 second
advantage at the chequered flag. Teammate Hutchinson’s bad luck
continued with a 2nd lap retirement whilst there was also
disappointment once more for Conor Cummins who retired at Windy
Corner on the third lap whilst in seventh.
Plater was delighted with second but this later became a win at just
his second attempt at the TT and everyone else was shuffled up the
order as a consequence of Anstey’s dramatic exclusion. Scotland’s
Amor dropped back on the final lap for fourth but this became third
for his first ever podium although events meant he didn’t get the
opportunity to take his place on the rostrum. Ryan Farquhar and Ian
Lougher weren’t too far behind in fourth and fifth whilst Gary
Johnson had another strong ride into 6th ahead of Mark Parrett, Mats
Nilsson, a somewhat lowly Donald, Michael Dunlop, Chris Palmer and
Adrian Archibald.
James Hillier and Jamie Robinson had great debuts finishing 19th and
20th respectively, both lapping above 118mph, whilst fellow newcomer
Alessio Corradi also rode well into 37th.
Roger Maher was reported as OK after an incident at Governors
Bridge.
Phil Wain
Steve Plater
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Picture's provided by
Stephen Davison @ Pacemaker press Intl
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