Steve Plater (born 22 August 1968, in

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

) is a former English motorcycle road racer. He was the 2009 British Supersport champion, and also finished as runner-up in the series twice in the late 1990s. In the

British Superbike Championship The British Superbike Championship (BSB), currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, is the leading road racing superbike championship in the United Kingdom, and was once widely acknowledged as the p ...

he has 4 wins and 17 further podiums. He won the prestigious Isle of Man Senior TT,

North West 200 The International North West 200 is a Northern Irish motorsport event established in 1929 for road racing motorcycles held on a street circuit known as ''the Triangle'' between the towns of Portstewart, Coleraine and Portrush in Causeway Coast ...

and also enjoyed success at

Endurance Endurance (also related to sufferance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from a ...

racing. For 2015/2016, Plater is manager of a race-team, and rides in demonstration events. He lives in

Woodhall Spa Woodhall Spa is a former spa Village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England, on the southern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, south-west of Horncastle, west of Skegness, east-south-east of Lincoln and north-west of Boston. It is noted for ...

, Lincolnshire, and is involved in property development with his father.

Race career

Having briefly raced speedway in his teens, he started his working life as a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsman and tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry. ...

, beginning racing in 1994 and winning his first ever race, at

Cadwell Park Cadwell Park is a motor racing circuit in Lincolnshire, England, south of Louth, owned and operated by MotorSport Vision, a business associated with former racing driver Jonathan Palmer. Sited on former parkland across a steep-sided valley wit ...

. In 1998 he won the British Powerbike championship, and only lost the more prestigious Supersport title on countback. He set an impressive pace at the 1999

Bol d'Or The Bol d’Or is a 24-hour endurance race for motorcycles, held annually in France. The riding of each bike is now shared by a team of three riders. History The Bol d’Or, first organized by Eugene Mauve, in 1922, was a race for motorcycles ...

en route to finishing third on a Kawasaki, which led him to race one in the 2000 British Superbike Championship full-time, finishing 6th overall without a podium but with a string of 4th to 7th places. He missed much of 2001 through injury, but still took three podiums. 2002 was his strongest season to date, seeing him finish 5th overall on a

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

, with two late-season wins. In 2003 he rode a

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

to sixth overall, winning at Cadwell Park in 2003 ) He missed the start of 2006 due to injury, but returned to win both Superbike races at the

. He won the 2007

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-ea ...

6-Hour

race on a Kawasaki, teamed with Julian Mazuecos and Gwen Giabbani. He was voted Best Newcomer at the

2007 Isle of Man TT The 2007 Isle of Man TT, Isle of Man Tourist Trophy was the Centenary race event held from 26 May to 8 June 2007. The Blue Riband race of the meeting, the Senior TT was won by John McGuinness (motorcycle racer), John McGuinness recording the fir ...

on Yamahas, having been mentored by former racer

Mick Grant Mick Grant (born 10 July 1944) is an English former professional motorcycle road racer and TT rider. A works-supported rider for Norton, Kawasaki, Honda and Suzuki, he is a seven-time winner of the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race on various ma ...

. Most of his 2008 races were on Yamaha machinery. He won the Supersport TT race after on-the-road winner

Bruce Anstey Bruce Anstey (born 21 August 1969 in New Zealand) is a professional motorcycle road racer. He is a former lap record holder on the world-famous Snaefell Mountain Course with a time of 17 minutes 6.682 seconds, at an average speed of set du ...

's bike was excluded. As for circuit racing, he started the year in the

, but a lack of success saw him switch to Supersport, winning first time out before a one-off in the

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

round of the

World Supersport Championship The Supersport World Championship, abbreviated to WorldSSP, is a motorcycle racing competition on hard-surfaced circuits, based on mid-sized sports motorcycles. Competition machines were originally based on production-based motorcycles with 60 ...

on a

Triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

Plater spent

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

with the HM Plant

team in Supersport, winning the title ahead of Australian Billy McConnell at the final round. He also stood in on a

Superbike A sport bike (sports motorcycle, or sports bike) is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfor ...

after

Josh Brookes Joshua Brookes (born 28 April 1983 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) is a professional motorcycle road racing, road racer with experience of Superbike and Supersport racing, both domestically and internationally. In 2020, he raced in the ...

' visa was delayed, falling from the lead in race one but finishing third in race two. In the 2009 Isle of Man

Senior TT The Senior Tourist Trophy is a motorcycle road race that takes place during the Isle of Man TT festival, an annual event traditionally held over the last week in May and the first week in June. The Senior TT is the Blue Riband event of the festi ...

race, Plater set a new race record, beating team-mate John McGuinness after his chain broke on the fourth lap. He also won the North West 200. He also contested the Le Mans 24 Hour motorcycle race for Honda France. During Thursday practice for the 2010 North West 200 Plater who had set the fastest time in Superbike practice on the Tuesday was injured in an accident. He suffering a broken arm when he came off his bike at Quarry Hill on the Coast Road section of the course. Subsequent hospital examinations revealed that Plater had fractured his neck.

2011

Plater confirmed his retirement from the roads to concentrate on

World Endurance Championship World Endurance Championship may refer to: * FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series held since 2012 * World Sportscar Championship, an auto racing series which used the title World Endurance Championship from 1981 to 1985 * Endura ...

After riding

Plater became a motorcycle racing co-commentator/presenter, and in 2015 was appointed as manager of the Prime Factors Racing team for road racing and Endurance. He continues to ride in demonstration events.2015 Goodwood Revival
''Telegraph'', Roland Brown, 12 September 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015

Circuit racing career stats

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plater, Steve Sportspeople from Luton English motorcycle racers Isle of Man TT riders British Supersport Championship riders British Superbike Championship riders Supersport World Championship riders Living people 1972 births Superbike World Championship riders Motorsport announcers People from Woodhall Spa