41st Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix- 2007

Lap one and Plater took the lead only to have John McGuinness snatch it away from him by the end of the second lap, with Michael Rutter one second behind in third, followed by Jeremy Toye, Thomas Hinterreiter and Conor Cummins...but by Lap 3 Plater was once more in the lead.
Lap 4 saw him set the fastest lap of the race so far at 2:28.428 and pull nearly a second on McGuinness, Toye moving ahead of Rutter. Lap 5 was faster still, and the lead was now over a second.

Lap 6 and a mistake by the American Jeremy Toye lost him 3rd, costing him nearly six seconds. Now it was Plater leading, still under pressure from McGuinness, with Rutter trying to fend of the Austrian Thomas Hinterreiter, 4 seconds off the lead, in the fight for third place.

Lap 7 and Steve Plater had lost 1 second, putting McGuinness right back on his tail - McGuinness now had the fastest lap of the race so far...it was just between the leading 4 riders, Plater, McGuinness, Rutter and Hinterreiter, who were pulling away from Jeremy Toye who was 8 seconds back but holding 6 seconds over Conor Cummins.

Lap 9 - and Rutter was getting faster, now taking the fastest lap and closing on the front duo - but still 2.7 seconds down with a mountain to climb. Lap 10 and Plater responded - but so too did Thomas Hinterreiter, now the first rider to lap under 2:27, at 2:26.82

Lap 11 and the pin has definitely been pulled for the leading 4 riders, Plater at 2:26.787 and McGuinness at 26.708 - and Hinterreiter still lapping nearly as fast and now just half a second behind Rutter...moving ahead of Rutter to take third place on Lap 12, the move costing both riders time, with the leaders now with a 4 second advantage.

Lap 13, 2 laps to go and Plater and McGuinness are still together at the front but Rutter is now out of contention after running up the slip-road at the Lisboa corner while battling with Hinterreiter for third. Plater has lapped at 2:26.415 - but McGuinness has comprehensively smashed the lap record, putting in a 2:26.096...

Final lap...and Steve Plater still has that half-a-second lead...and despite everything that John McGuinness can do, it wouldn't be enough. Steve Plater won a thrilling race - but John McGuinness now has the new lap record...and Yamaha Austria's Thomas Hinterreiter get's the final podium place, the top three riders the only ones to break the 2 minute 27 second barrier.

STEVE PLATER PRESS RELEASE:
Steve Plater was acclaimed King of Macau after winning the Macau Grand Prix for the second year in succession. His AIM teammate Steve Allan won the Supersport 600 class, making it a double celebration for the team who has gone into the record books as the first team to win both the Superbike and Supersport races at the same time. Plater, from Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire had completed first qualifying on provisional pole but was forced out of the final session on Friday with a misfire to the AIM Yamaha R1. Although he was unable to post a competitive time in the final session, his previous time was sufficient to claim fourth place on the grid for Saturday’s 15-lap race.

“I was under the lap record in morning warm-up,” said Plater. “And knew I could lap quicker in the race once half the fuel load had gone so am feeling confident. As long as the misfire doesn’t return I should be there or thereabouts and although I don’t like to make predictions about the result, if I don’t win today then whoever does will have to earn it!!” As the lights heralded the start it was John McGuinness who got the hole shot but Plater was quick to anticipate the lights and moved straight into third place before passing Michael Rutter at the fast Mandarin corner and then attacked McGuinness for the race lead. “I didn’t want John to take charge of the race,” said Plater. “So I passed him at San Francisco Hill and was able to control the pace from then on.”

Lap two saw McGuinness regain the lead and the pair began to pull away from the pursuing pack. But Plater used every inch of the track in an effort to stick with the multi-TT winner and forged back ahead at the hairpin on lap three. “I put in three very fast laps, all a second under the existing record but John stuck with me,” said the 35-year-old race ace. Steve held onto his slender lead for the remainder of the race, the gap between himself and McGuinness remaining under a second. But on the final lap the pair encountered some backmarkers as they approached the hairpin. Plater timed it to perfection, attacking the backmarkers at just the right place and shot past and onto the finish where he took the chequered flag for his second win in as many years with a four second advantage over McGuinness.

“I knew we'd come across back markers at the end so prepared to attack in the right places leaving me a gap at the end and it worked to perfection,” said a jubilant Steve Plater. “I suffered with arm pump throughout the race due to my injuries from Qatar last week, which made it very hard to feel the throttle and front brake lever. But I managed to relax wherever possible so I remained strong till the end...this is a mega end to season for me and also for AIM and Yamaha who have won both the Superbike and Supersport classes, which I think is the first time a team has won both!”

STEVE PLATER MACAU PRESS RELEASE:
After setting provisional pole in first qualifying for the Macau GP, Woodhall Spa racer Steve Plater was hoping to consolidate that in the final session on Friday morning. But it all went wrong for him when the AIM Yamaha R1 developed a misfire in the early stages of the session preventing him from posting a flying lap. Most of his opponents were able to post quicker times using qualifying tyres but although Steve, who won the race last year, was unable to capitalise on his earlier times he was still able to claim a fourth place start to Saturday’s 15-lap affair as his times from the first session were quick enough to secure his place on the grid.

“After pulling into the pits in the early stages of final qualifying the team worked on the bike changing many settings in an effort to cure the misfire and with just three minutes remaining I was able to go back out there,” said Steve. “But at the end of my out lap the chequered flag came out curtailing my time on the track. However, on my in-lap I was up on the first two splits before coming into the pits so as long as we can solve the problem with the bike we should be ok for the race.”

The 15-lap race gets underway on Saturday at 2.50pm local time, which is around 7am in the UK.

Michael Rutter, the 34-year-old British motorcycle racer searching for a record-breaking seventh victory in the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix grabbed pole position for tomorrow’s 41st running of the Far East Classic event. This is the sixth time in 13 appearances that Rutter has topped the qualifying list but he admitted after the second and crucial timed session that he had had to ride harder than he had ever done before to be quickest.

Rutter, on the AVIVA Kawasaki 1000, lapped at a staggering 2:26.644 seconds, 1.3 seconds quicker than his record-breaking pole performance last year. Austrian Thomas Hinterreiter on the Austria Racing Team Yamaha 1000 was second fastest just three tenths of a second slower than Rutter. Britain’s John McGuinness, winner of the race in 2001 and keen to win this year after setting a sensational record 130mph lap at the Isle of Man TT races in June, was third fastest just over half a second behind the Austrian.

It was a disappointing day for Steve Plater. The 35-year-old Lincolnshire rider had been on provisional pole after Thursday’s opening qualifying session but was plagued throughout today’s one hour outing by an electrical fault on the AIM Racing Yamaha 1000 that prevented him from completing a flying lap. The team is still busy searching for the cause of the problem and hope that it will be cured in time for Saturday morning’s warm up. Even so, Plater’s quick lap on Thursday was enough to keep him on the front row of the grid for the 15-lap race with fourth fastest time, 1.3 seconds slower than the flying Rutter.

Fifth fastest was Guy Martin on the Solent Scientific Racing Honda 1000, but the 26-year-old Humberside, UK rider was a faller in the session, injuring a wrist and being ruled out of Saturday’s race. Steve Allan was quickest in the separate 600 Class on the AIM Racing Yamaha. The 33-year-old from Perth in Scotland, winner of the race for the past two years, lapped in 2:29.652 seconds to qualifying an impressive seventh overall among the more powerful big bikes. Allan was 3.7 seconds a lap faster than 32-year-old German Rico Penzkofer on the Yamaha Austria Racing Team 600 making his second appearance at the event. Another Scot, Callum Ramsay (Solent Scientific Honda 600) snatched third best time in the Class just edging out American newcomer Jimmy Moore (AVIVA Kawasaki) who was making a racing return for the first time since breaking a bone in his right foot and his left ankle in a crash in America in June.

Just to make a comparison, the fastest lap last year was set during the race - by Michael Rutter - at 2:27.588

The 41st Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix
Provisional Entry List

No.	Driver	Nat.	Entrant	Machine/cc
1	Steve PLATER	GBR	A.I.M. Racing	YAMAHA/ 1000
2	Jimmy MOORE	USA	AVIVA Kawasaki	KAWASAKI/ 600*
3	Michael RUTTER	GBR	AVIVA Kawasaki	KAWASAKI/ 1000
4	Chris PALMER	GBR	Slingshot Racing	YAMAHA/ 1000
5	Guy MARTIN	GBR	Solent Scientific Racing	HONDA/ 1000
6	Stephen THOMPSON	GBR	IGT Racing Team	SUZUKI/ 1000
7	Thomas HINTERREITER	AUT	Yamaha Austria Racing Team	YAMAHA/ 1000
8	Dennis HOBBS	GBR	Slingshot Racing	YAMAHA/ 998
9	James McBRIDE	GBR	J V Racing - Leyford Construction	YAMAHA/ 998
10	Mark MILLER	USA	Corona Extra Honda Racing	HONDA/ 1000
11	Conor CUMMINS	IOM	DMR Racing	YAMAHA/ 1000
12	Martin FINNEGAN	IRL	MV Agusta 312	MV AGUSTA/ 999
13	Rico PENZKOFER	GER	Yamaha Austria Racing Team	YAMAHA/ 600*
14	Luis CARREIRA	POR	Benimoto Suzuki Yoshimura	SUZUKI/ 1000
15	Martin JESSOP	GBR	DMR Racing	YAMAHA/ 1000
17	SOU Sio Hong	MAC	Sou Sio Hong	HONDA/ 600*
18	LEONG Iok Choi	MAC	Ao’s Racing Team	YAMAHA/ 600*
19	Franky HEIDGER	GER	Dubai-Motomotions.com	SUZUKI/ 996
25	LIN Chia Hao	TPE	Lin Chia Hao	YAMAHA/ 600*
32	CHEUNG Wai On	HKG	Cheung Wai On	KAWASAKI/ 600*
38	Joao FERNANDES	MAC	Joao Fernandes	YAMAHA/ 600*
40	Steve ALLAN	GBR	A.I.M. Racing	YAMAHA/ 600*
44	John HANER	USA	Team Millennium/ Suzuki	SUZUKI/ 1000
46	Luis PIMENTA	POR	Luis Racing Team Suzuki	SUZUKI/ 1000
47	Nick WINTHROPE	HKG	Nick Winthrope	SUZUKI/ 600*
51	Jose LEITE	POR	Suzuki Caepsa BPN	SUZUKI/ 999
57	Jeremy TOYE	USA	Lee’s Cycles Racing	SUZUKI/ 1000
60	Callum RAMSAY	GBR	Solent Scientific Racing	HONDA/ 600*
66	John MCGUINNESS	GBR	Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport	HONDA/ 998
67	Ian HUTCHINSON	GBR	Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport	HONDA/ 998
77	Les SHAND	GBR	BTS Racing	HONDA/ 1000
86	Cameron DONALD	AUS	Kawasaki Bolliger – SKSupport	KAWASAKI/ 1000
88	Gerald MUTEAU	FRA	Team of Paris	SUZUKI/ 1000
99	Pierre CHAPUIS	FRA	Team of Paris	YAMAHA/ 1000
* FIM 600cc Supersport Class

I'm not going to recommend any of the less-than-salubrious places to go in the fine village of Pattaya - except maybe Tahitian Queen, home of the Jesters MC...or the Doll House...or Beavers...or Angelwitch (Soi 15, Walking Street - best shows in town)...

...but remember, there's usually something going on at the local track Bira - and you can tear up the track at two pretty good karting tracks. Pattaya Kart Speedway (on Soi Thepprasit) also has an off-road track, along with paint-balling (if you want to get all dressed up in 34 degrees and 95% humidity, it's up to you). The International track, KR Go Kart is also on Soi Thepprasit and, in fact, just on the opposite site of the Soi where you will find the Pattaya Kart Speed way. For my money, it's by far the better track - longer, too, at 1100 meters. The track is perfect, the karts well maintained and there are 3-4 types of karts with different performances to choose from, so you can scare yourself sh witless, should you choose - and the great thing is that they're both within walking distance of each other on the same road (just on opposite sides). Compared to any in Europe, they're much more relaxed (so you really have to be a responsible adult!) and they're damned cheap.

For eating out, there's far too many to choose from - but if you're after seafood, Lobster Pot is better and friendlier than King Lobster, both on Walking Street.

Finally, for an absolutely first class meal, I cannot recommend Bruno's highly enough - superb dining, magnificent wine cellar (truly!) Tell him Clive McNeil and Colin Marshall recommended it to you. See the map below.

REPORT FROM OFFICIAL MACAU GRAND PRIX WEBSITE:
Following his astonishing performance at Macau last year, in which he denied fellow Briton Michael Rutter a seventh - and record-breaking - Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix title, Steve Plater is back this year aboard the A.I.M. Racing Yamaha 1000 to defend his crown. His Macau win catapulted the rider into the spotlight, landing him a full time ride with the team in the British Superbike Championship, the North West 200, the Isle of Man TT, as well as a place in the Kawasaki’s World Endurance Championship campaign and his title defence in the Far East.

However Plater must overcome a tough line-up of adversaries from twelve nations and territories if he is to repeat his success of a year ago, the most determined of which will undoubtedly be Rutter who will this time be racing the Aviva Kawasaki 1000. Last year Rutter’s attempts to better the existing record of Macau wins, which he holds jointly with motorcycle star Ron Haslam, were thwarted by Plater and he had to settle for setting a new lap record of 2:27.588.

Stobart Motorsport is fielding a strong entry in the form of Ian Hutchinson, 3rd last year having challenged for victory in the early stages, and 2001 Macau winner John McGuinness. McGuinness notched up his 13th Isle of Man TT victory earlier this year, setting a new outright lap record of 130mph, and has been on scorching form ever since.

Guy Martin makes his 3rd visit to Macau having finished 5th last year. This time he will be on a Honda 1000 with Solent Scientific Racing, while Macau regular Stephen Thompson will be aboard the IGT Racing Team Suzuki 1000. James McBride on the JV Racing Yamaha 1000, Les Shand once again on a Honda 1000 with BTS Racing, and Chris Palmer on the Slingshot Racing Yamaha 1000, round off the strong group of British regulars.

British newcomer Martin Jessop makes his Far East debut on a DMR Racing Yamaha 1000. Twenty one-year-old Jessop began his career at the age of six in motocross, with success moving him through the ranks to first the British Championship and then European Youth Supercross series. His first road race came at 17 on a GP125cc Honda and, after just two years, he earned a place with a World Endurance Championship Phase One junior team where he became the youngest ever rider to score championship points. From there he moved to the British Superstock Championship, where his best result was 3rd, and the British Supersport Championship on a 749 Ducati. Next year Jessop plans to compete in the British Superbike Championship. Jessop is partnered on the team by another newcomer Conor Cummins from the Isle of Man. Cummins, also 21, began his career like most youngsters on the Isle of Man on short circuits. He made an impressive road racing debut in 2005, competing in the R6 Cup. He made his Isle of Man TT debut the following year, and in 2007 won two Irish titles and tops the prestigious Duke Road Race Rankings which ranks British and Irish road racers.

Also taking on Macau’s awe-inspiring 6.2km street circuit is Dennis Hobbs, partnering Palmer at Slingshot Racing. Hobbs, 24, won the Honda Hornet Championship in 2000, moving to British Supersport the following year and then British Superstock in 2002, where he finished 3rd in his second year. In 2004, Hobbs finished 3rd in the British Superbike Privateer Cup, earning himself some rides in the World Superbike Championship the following year. He currently rides for Padgett’s in the British Supersport Championship and was in line to clinch the title before a fall in the penultimate round at Donington. Hobbs has made a spectacular comeback after a major injury. Unaware of the fact he had broken his neck, he continued racing aggravating the injury. After an operation, the outcome of which was touch and go, he made an impressive comeback and has not looked back since.

With Irish rider and Macau regular Martin Finnegan on board, legendary Italian marque MV Agusta will make its Macau debut this year. Finnegan will ride a factory MV Agusta F4 312 1000cc Superbike, the first ever appearance of the bike outside Italy. The team and the machine itself are named after the 312kph speed which earned the 1000cc F4 the title of the world’s fastest production bike. The Agusta story goes back to 1907, is steeped in history, and ignites fierce passions amongst Italian motorcycle fans. Its appearance at Macau will certainly be one for this history books.

After a disappointing showing last year, the USA contingent will be out to make their mark in Asia. Mark “Thriller” Miller has secured the use of the highly competitive Corona Extra Racing Honda 1000 and is looking to capitalise on his Isle of Man experience to repeat his previous success in Macau. John Haner (KWS Racing Suzuki 1000), is hoping to erase the memories of a disastrous 2006 Macau outing when he was let down by machine failure. Jeremy Toye (Lee’s Cycles Racing Suzuki 1000), comes fresh from winning his third successive Toyota open class shoot out race which pays US$50,000 to the winner.

These Macau regulars will be joined by fellow American and top flight rider Jimmy Moore, who will make his Macau debut in the 600 Supersport Class on an Aviva Kawasaki. Moore took the 2001 AMA Supersport 750cc and 2002 AMA Superstock Championships, and has ridden for many of the leading American privateer teams. With Michael Rutter as his team mate, the Macau rookie could ask for no better advice on Macau’s demanding Guia Circuit.

Once again, the field is a truly international affair with Thomas Hinterreiter of Austria, who finished 7th last year, returning to Macau with the Yamaha Austria Racing Team. Another Macau regular Franky Heidger of Germany is entered by the Dubai-Motomotions.com team on a Suzuki, with fellow countryman Rico Penzkofer returning for a second time but this year recruited to the highly professional Yamaha Austria Racing Team.

Gerald Muteau, who made his Macau debut last year, will fly the flag for France with his Team of Paris on a Suzuki and is joined by his Endurance racing partner, Pierre Chapuis, also with Team of Paris but riding a Yamaha. Cameron Donald will represent Australia with the Kawasaki Bollinger-SKSupport outfit. Donald took a magnificent 2nd place in the Isle of Man TT this year in only his second Senior TT outing and is a previous winner of the Macau GP 600cc Supersport class.

Rui Reigoto, top Portuguese finisher last year, is entered on the Honda Vodafone Repsol Honda, and Luis Carreira on the Benimoto Suzuki Yoshimura entry and Jose Leite with Suzuki Caepsa BPN bring the number of entries from Portugal to three.

Flying the flag for Hong Kong will be Jason Broome on a Suzuki 998, and China Superbike Championship leader Nick Winthrope who returns to Macau riding a Suzuki 1000.

In the 600 Supersport category, last year’s winner Steve Allan returns to defend his title this time on an A.I.M. Racing Yamaha. Runner up in 2006, Callum Ramsay is also back but this time on a Solent Scientific racing Honda.

Macau riders João Fernandes, Sou Sio Hong, and Leong Iok Choi are all entered in the Supersport class. Fernandes has this year been competing in the FIM World Endurance Championship in the Super Production category, scoring two victories in the class in his debut season. Sou makes his 7th appearance in the race, his best finish to date being 4th in 2001. Leong meanwhile finished 3rd in the category on his debut in 2000.

From Chinese Taipei comes Lin Chia Hao who races regularly for a Chinese team across the country, and makes his Macau debut this year on a Yamaha. Hong Kong’s Cheung Wai On, a multiple winner in Macau’s former motorcycle novice race and 3rd in the Supersport class last year, will be aboard a Kawasaki machine this year.