Despite leading the race for some considerable time, Steve Plater was not able to turn this into the victory he deserved at the end of the six-hour World Endurance race at Albacete in Spain.
But he did finish in a credible fourth place even though both his team-mates, Steve Martin and Igor German suffered crashes during their stint on the Yamaha Austria Race Team (YART) machine on Saturday.
The Woodhall Spa race ace said: "I have
been to very few tests or races this year without encountering either snow or rain and Albacete has been no different.
"Every session here has been run in differing conditions, no real heavy rain through qualifying, it's just been damp and slippery all the time."
Steve was the first rider for the team and after four laps he was leading the field.
He held the lead throughout his one and a half hour stint before handing over to Martin.
Both Martin and German suffered crashes during their time on the bike but the team was able to maintain fourth position at the changeover with Plater taking over the reins for the last 80 minutes to bring the bike home safely in fourth place.
Plater now heads to Ireland with AIM Yamaha to contest the annual North West 200 races on Saturday where he has won the Superbike race on three previous occasions.
Plater will contest the Superbike race and the high profile North West 200 Superbike race on the Yamaha R1 plus the Supersport race on the Yamaha R6.
The full article contains 262 words and appears in Horncastle News newspaper.
