Jason Plato says that he is very confident for the remainder of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship season after a “mega” Brands Hatch weekend in which the MG driver took two podiums.
Plato was on the pace throughout the weekend, topping both of Saturday’s free practice sessions before narrowly being beaten to pole position by reigning champion Andrew Jordan.
Although the former double champion was unable to take a win at the weekend, as he has done in each of the past three seasons, he admits to leaving the circuit having enjoyed the races and feeling confident for the season ahead.
Speaking about the final race, in which he came from 11th on the grid to finish third, Plato said: “It was mega, I loved it (race three). I’ve had quite a few of those sort of races in my career coming from the pack, it’s brilliant fun.
“Of course you can only do that when you get your car hooked up, and the big story for me this weekend was the step change we’ve made with the soft tyre. Last year we weren’t the best on the softs and after that performance we are the best. It’s an area we looked at over the winter; an area we needed to improve on and I believe the developments made on the car have done the job.”
Plato added that his extra confidence came from the fact that his MG, renowned for being fast in the wet, was now making improvements on the soft tyre in dry conditions.
“I’m very confident moving forwards,” added Plato. “On the media day we were quickest in the wet, last year here we were night and day quicker than anyone else in the wet and now we’re quick in the dry on the softs.
“We just need to understand why we keep having some gremlins into the system. We’re not going to not win the thing because of a lack of pace; it’s going to be because of gremlins, electrical or whatever it might be. My tail is in the air though after that result, we’ve turned it around and we’re motivated now we’ve had our first podium finish on the soft tyre.”
Triple Eight Team Principal Ian Harrison added that he was pleased with the team’s start to the season, which also saw Sam Tordoff finish in the points in all three races, despite the technical issues at the start of race two which saw Plato unable to pull away from the line.
“Despite a few reliability issues that were out of our control, and lets be clear, it doesnt matter whether youre spending millions in F1 or a lot lot less in BTCC, things can go wrong, it was a solid enough start to the season,” said Harrison. “Full credit to the whole team for the effort that enabled that to happen.
“There’s no doubt that the quality of the grid has improved significantly this season; you saw that in qualifying where a second off the pace resulted in a 24th place grid position. In race 3 JP showed that we have made some good progress with the soft option tyre and we should be in good shape for Donington in three weeks.”
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save weekend results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 2 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO |  |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 24 | 0.536 | 48.763 | 2 |
| 10 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 24 | 16.188 | 49.096 | 12 |
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 10 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 27 | 5.814 | 48.975 | 10 |
| 11 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 27 | 6.623 | 49.111 | 2 |
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 3 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 27 | 1.446 | 48.891 | 11 |
| 12 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 27 | 10.173 | 49.255 | 10 |