Jason Plato is confident that both he and Silverline Subaru BMR Racing are set to make further progress with the development of the Subaru Levorg as the British Touring Car Championship heads next to Oulton Park in a fortnights time [4th-5th June].
Plato was forced to miss the last triple header at Thruxton on safety grounds after the team’s engineering staff discovered a part, a previous design of which had failed on James Cole’s car at Donington Park and caused a fire, showed signs of wear in it’s new design and no guarantee could be made of avoiding a repeat result.
Overall, Plato makes the trip to Cheshire placed 23rd in the Drivers standings, 98 points adrift of joint standings leaders Matt Neal and Rob Collard. However the 48-year-old has publicly labelled the first three meetings of the season as test days, as the team look to trial as many varied setups as possible in an attempt to catch up the ground lost in pre-season testing in the quickest time possible.
The double champion has enjoyed a positive record at Oulton Park throughout his career, taking a total of 11 race victories around the 2.26 mile Island circuit.
Two of those victories came at last seasons event, with the 94-time race winner claiming the first and second contests behind the wheel of the Volkswagen CC.
He reaffirmed his belief in the Levorg GT and believes the car is set for an improved set of results at Oulton Park, also underlining his confidence in both his and the teams ability to continue with their development programme as they works towards the sharp end of the most competitive tin-top field in the UK.
Plato also indicated he expects the model to be competitive enough to challenge for podiums and race wins before the series concludes at Brands Hatch in October.
“There is a reason why we chose this car and this layout – we know it has the potential to be a real game changer!” he explained.
“We’ll be stronger at Oulton Park and I’m confident that will see us take another significant step forward towards the front,”
“We will get podiums and win races this season – I’m sure of it.”