Isle of Man TT: Steve Plater handed Supersport win after Anstey gets disqualified

Steve Plater has been awarded the win in the Isle of Man TT Supersport race after original winner Bruce Anstey was disqualified for a technical infringement.

The New Zealander took the third victory of the 2008 Isle of Man TT for Relentless by TAS Suzuki team and also broke the lap record for the supersport race at 125.372mph on his second lap of the 37.73 mile course.

But three hours after the race Anstey was disqualified as an after market engine part, not supplied by Suzuki, was found to be outside the tolerance levels set by event organisers for the supersport class.

A statement from Isle of Man TT organisers read: “The organisers believe that the mistake in engine building was not a deliberate attempt to gain an advantage but simply a human error which under the rules results in the disqualification.”

Anstey was in two minds whether to race at all in the supersport race after he had to retire from the superstock race earlier in the day with flu symptoms.

But on the back of the news of their disqualification, the Relentless by TAS Suzuki prinicipal Philip Neill said that there had been a genuine mistake made.

Neill said: “We are holding our hands up and saying we’ve made a genuine mistake.
“It’s a hard way to discover that an after-market part was marked incorrectly, and our engine builder is very disappointed that he didn’t discover the discrepancy. We’re all human and mistakes can happen.”

Padgetts Honda’s John McGuinness has now been promoted to his second place of the festival with Keith Amor now handed the final podium spot.

See a full list of the results here