Anstey puts Triumph second on Macau debut.

The Triumph ValMoto British Supersport team rolled out their street racing specialist Bruce Anstey for Saturday's 37th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix - and the New Zealander promptly turned heads by taking his third rostrum finish on the Daytona 600.

34-year-old Anstey finished 12th overall, 1min 16.907secs behind Superbike race winner Michael Rutter - but less than two seconds behind fellow antipodean Cameron Donald who took Supersport class victory. Steve Plater claimed the final podium place.

The combination of Anstey and the Triumph ValMoto machine is fast becoming one of the most formidable in public roads racing, but the Macau result may still have surprised a few, given that it was the rider and bike's first ever visit to the event.

Starting from the Supersport pole position, Anstey remained consistently fast and rode extremely hard, despite the perilous nature of the Armco lined four-mile circuit. Plater actually won the race on the road, but was given a 30-second penalty for jumping the start, so it was left to Anstey and last year's runner-up Donald to battle it out for the lead.

After 15 high speed laps, the pair crossed the line with just 1.905 seconds separating them. Such a small interval after an epic 60-mile race illustrated just how close Anstey had come to victory. The next 600cc machine to finish was almost one minute behind the Triumph ValMoto rider. A good many 1000cc Superbikes also trailed in the Kiwi's wake.

"Second place is a great result," said team manager Jack Valentine. "The pace was very hot this year and Bruce rode a brilliant race. This isn't the most forgiving circuit in the world and the commitment that he showed in each and every corner was amazing - especially because he's only had such a short time to learn the circuit. Just two days ago we had no data whatsoever for this circuit and now we have another trophy."