Steve Plater slates Josh Brookes ban

Steve Plater can be counted for one thing, his straight –talking attitude – so regardless of which team’s race shirt he’s wearing, you can bank on his honest assessment of a situation.

After talking about his and the HM Plant Honda’s decision for him to concentrate on British Supersport, rather than ride the team’s superbike at Brands Hatch or Cadwell Park, talk inevitably switched to the two event ban slapped on his team-mate Josh Brookes after the Mallory crash.

Plater said: “In my personal opinion, it’s absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know the background to the Donington crash with (Sylvain) Guintoli but Josh had served a suspended sentence for that ban so it shouldn’t even come into it.

“He made a mistake at Mallory – no one’s arguing that point – but it’s racing and shit happens. He’d battled through from 17th to fourth as smooth as you like and makes one mistake and gets banned for it.

“If that’s the case why wasn’t Karl Harris banned for crashing into Richard Cooper in the first race. I’m not saying that was all Karl’s fault but the principle is the same. And what happens if anyone touches anyone else in future? Where do you draw the line? You can bet you’ll see some protests flying in future.

“The bottom line is that Mallory Park is a car park and you’ve got racers trying to control 200plus bhp superbikes around there on a track that supersport bikes can lap within three tenths of superbikes. It’s hard work and mistakes happen.

“I really feel for Simon Andrews and the MSS Kawasaki team. They’ve worked so hard this year and were robbed of what could have been their first win. I feel for Tommy Hill and the Worx Suzuki team.

“Tommy’s been smashed up, fought back and he too could have won it. But both of them have had people off in the past. We all have. 

“So yeah, Josh made a mistake but it doesn’t justify a two event ban.”