Steve Claims 14th position after poor start

20/07/08 : As the season goes past the half way point Steven adds two more points to his tally at Oulton Park, however a bad start and poor opening lap leaves Steven wondering what might have been.....

Steven's weekend started positively when he obtained a provisional front row grid slot in the wet qualifying session, but then slipped back to 15th in the dry session in the afternoon. 1.5 seconds was all that separated the top 15 riders and whilst Steven was a little disappointed with his final qualifying position he was looking forward to a close race the following day.

The weather had been very unpredictable all weekend and the theme continued in Sundays morning warm up, when just as the riders left pit lane, there was a short shower.

Luckily the weather held out for the race, and Steven was confident that come rain or shine he would be able to pull off a good result.

But as has been his week point all season, Neate struggled to get a good start and lost vital positions and time in the opening laps.

A strong fight back saw Steven re-pass TT winner John McGinnis and close down a three second gap to the battle for 9th place. Steven fought amongst the gaggle of riders but in closing up the three second gap Steve had pushed his tyres and in the closing stages struggled with front end grip. This meant that Steve crossed the line in 14th position.

Steve commented on the race, saying....

'I have a habit of making life difficult for myself! I am really struggling with getting my starts sorted and it's costing me a lot of time. Once again, I have shown good pace but I just didn't get the result I wanted. It's frustrating because I know I should be finishing higher up the order. I will be putting in 110% to try and improve the recent run of form'.

Steven's Next race will take place at Knockhill on the 1st 2nd and 3rd of August.