Jason Plato was pleased to have enjoyed a dominant weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton after taking two race wins, but continued his questioning of the future direction of the series.
After a damp track in first practice meant little meaningful running could be achieved, Plato went on a clean sweep of topping sessions as he blitzed his rivals in qualifying on Saturday, before winning Sunday’s first two races – the second of which came after he was forced to overtake Colin Turkington, after the championship leader took the lead at the start.
Plato’s biggest score of the season means that he is now 43 points behind Turkington in the championship in third place.
Reflecting on the weekend, the MG driver was thrilled with his exploits – particularly his race two victory – but maintained his stance about the need for parity between front- and rear-wheel drive machines.
“Very, very pleased with it,” said Plato of his haul from Snetterton. “It was a crucial weekend for us bearing in mind where we are [in the championship], how many points we’re adrift, we needed to go home having scored a big load of points and we’ve achieved that.
“I’m especially pleased because for whatever reason – whether it’s because I’ve hit a purple patch, I don’t know – I was the only bloke today who took the fight to the BMW, the rest of them were miles off.
“It [race two] was a great race actually; Colin drove brilliantly and there was quite a psychology involved in that, both from his perspective and also from mine.
“Once he got into the lead my game plan was ‘let’s stay in contact but get away from these guys behind’. He made a little error into Coram which allowed me to close up by about a car’s length and then I closed up on the brakes, and that just put him under pressure, I kept that up for two laps and then made my move.
“What’s a bit disturbing about that is that if I was on holiday yesterday and today, what would have happened? [Colin] Turkington would have breezed two races, with 45 kilograms on board.
“So I don’t think you can look at my pace relative to the BMW and go ‘well that’s where the pace is’ because Gordon hasn’t forgotten how to drive a racing car. Honda haven’t forgotten how to engineer it. For whatever reason I’ve just produced something amazing this weekend and I don’t mean that in a cocky way, it’s just fact, but the concern is that after what’s been a stellar weekend for me, I’ve only taken a couple of points out of him [Turkington].”
Delving further into the situation, Plato expressed his concerns that if the series’ regulations don’t change ahead of the 2015 season, a number of teams will be forced to switch to rear-wheel drive machines.
“If I was in a rear-wheel drive car I’d be smiling wouldn’t I? But I’m not so I have to fight about it – and it’s not just me, [but] whether I like it or not I’m the one people speak to, I’ve got the voice, people know me, TV cameras interview me so it sounds like I’m the one that’s mouthing off.
“Everybody’s really upset with it all [the RWD situation] for lots of reasons. One is what’s happening next year? What’s happening? Because at the minute no one wants to go front-wheel drive.
“They [series organisers TOCA] have to [change the regulations] otherwise they will destroy the formula, because everyone will have to throw their cars in the skip. It’s as simple as that. They need to tell us what’s happening, but my thoughts are they won’t tell us because that will be admitting that they got it wrong.
“I’m dead chuffed, I’ve had a great weekend but it feels like I’m swimming uphill at the minute.”
The two-time series champion nevertheless insisted that regardless of any potential rule change, his desire was to remain in the championship for the foreseeable future.
“If I can find a manufacturer that is rear-wheel drive [then I’ll still be in the series],” Plato told TouringCars.Net. “This is a business; this is how we earn our money and unless we know what’s going to happen next year, we all have to throw all of this stuff in the bin and go and buy a rear-wheel drive car. You tell me what manufacturers there are available?
“Honda, bin. MG, bin. Toyota, bin. It’s a really serious thing this and they’ve got to change it.”
Plato’s two victories moved him to 199 podiums in the series, but he insisted that there was no added incentive to him being so close to a double century of rostrums.
“It’s just a number. It’s a nice thing, but it’s only something that when I eventually decide to hang up my racing boots then I’ll look back and think ‘that’s pretty cool’.
“But it’s only that at the minute because when the 200th comes, I’ll want number 201.”
Maybe he will finally be happy if BTCC becomes an MG only class so he can win all of the races?