Plater had been on form throughout the weekend and held pole in final qualifying until the session was stopped because of a fire in the campsite which saw smoke billowing across the track along Park Straight. As the session continued Plater was caught out by a cold tyre and slid off at Barn Corner. Unable to improve his lap times he was relegated to third place for a front row start to Sunday’s planned 16-lap race.



As the race got underway Plater was a bit too keen to get started and nearly incurred a penalty for a jump-start. But the race was red-flagged almost immediately because of a two-rider crash at Charlies on the first lap.



After a lengthy delay the race was re-started and run over 14 laps. This time Plater made no mistake at the start and slotted straight into second place behind Hudson Kennaugh.



By lap five he had taken the lead with series leader Glen Richards following through. Richards began to challenge for the lead and eventually made his way past Plater on lap eight. But Plater was not to be denied his win on home tarmac and stuck with Richards eventually making his move along Park Straight to regain the lead, which he held to the chequered flag.



It was a popular win for the local hero and the crowd gave him a standing ovation on his slow down lap.



“Its not all glory for me today as my teammate David Paton was involved in the first lap crash, he is ok and I hope the other guy involved will be ok.



“The crash was a get out of jail card for me because I jumped the start and would have incurred a penalty. But at the restart I got away well and sat behind Kennaugh through the first few corners and took the lead at Mansfield when he made a mistake.



“I dropped my pace a little bit to try and conserve my tyres and then Glen (Richards) came past. I just followed him and bided my time, as I knew I could pass him at some stage. I left it until the last lap and took him at Park Corner and kept him behind me to the chequered flag.”



Although Steve remains in seventh place he has gained ground on Chris Martin in sixth and is just six points adrift. But because of a date clash with the World Endurance Championship Plater will miss the next round of the British Supersport series at Croft on September 14 and will no doubt have it all to do again in the penultimate round of the series at Silverstone on September 28.