HM Plant Honda, who is officially Britain's busiest racer, reckons he gave himself a bit of a job to do at Brands Hatch British Superbikes this weekend, switching between Supersport and Superbikes, and the respective podiums.
The Lincolnshire man, who recently added to his family with the birth of Poppy, did more laps than anyone else at the Kent circuit as he was deputising for Superbike rider Josh Brookes as well as riding his Supersport bike and gained two podiums for his efforts.
“I started off this weekend on the Fireblade with settings where Josh had got to at our last pre-season test, as it would have taken up too much time to start from scratch," said Plater.
"The first test session was 1.5 hours long, which gave me time to get in some mileage. I also found good pace, so that was a boost to my confidence and also testament to the great job that Josh and Adrian (crew chief) had done in getting a good base setting for the bike during testing.
"I had two minor crashes on Friday and Saturday which were both stupid mistakes on my part, and fortunately no injuries at all, but we spent the first few days trying different things and I’ve been on the pace in every session where it mattered and despite the iffy conditions I’ve felt very comfortable on the Fireblade.
“I’m so disappointed about race one as I’d got into a good pace and was feeling very comfortable and in control, so to lose the front when I was in the lead is gutting. I was actually trying not to push too hard as I wasn’t sure how long the rear tyre would last, but a bit too much brake and lean angle put me in the gravel.
“I had to switch my head into Superbike mode pretty quickly for race two as I’d just stepped off my Supersport bike. I had a good start and just made a charge for the first corner and tried to get into a rhythm as quickly as possible, which I did. I did have a few issues with front end chatter but I was still able to make up time and make the gains necessary to take third place for a podium finish.
“I had a good start in the Supersport race but it took me a few laps to get back into that mode and riding style so I gave myself a bit of a job to do to pull back a few places. With about 10 laps to go I got my head down and tried keep it as smooth as possible and thought about trying to challenge for the lead, but decided to keep play it safe and take a solid second place, so I’ll just have to go one better at Oulton Park.”
It’s been hard work this weekend but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and can’t thank the team enough, as, what we’ve achieved in both Superbikes and Supersport has been a total team effort.”
