Jason Plato hailed another positive weekend of development for Silverline Subaru BMR Racing as the double champion picked up another brace of podium finishes at the British Touring Car Championship’s annual visit to Croft.
Plato, who is currently on a run of form that sees him tally five podiums in his last six starts, claimed second in the opening race of the day as Subaru took a first ever 1-2 finish in the series. He then doubled this up with another runners-up spot in the second race despite clashing with Turkington whilst disputing the lead.
The results see Plato place 13th overall in the Drivers standings, some 78 points adrift of former MG team-mate Sam Tordoff at the summit. Only Subaru team-mate Turkington heads into the summer break in a better vein of form than Plato, which spells good news for Team BMR as they continue to develop the Levorg into a thoroughbred winning machine.
Reflecting on the three contests around the 2.13 mile Yorkshire venue, local hero Plato admitted the wet weather threw up a few unknowns, but ones he was able to safely navigate and ultimately contribute towards the cars development path.
“Another great weekend, we’re learning a lot. Personally, for me, the wet race was my first time in one of these things [Levorg GT] in the wet. I was a little bit ginger, a little bit soft at the beginning until I could recalibrate. Once I pieced that together – boom! Fastest lap.”
Looking at the position of the car in general relative to it’s rivals, Plato also feels there is much more potential to be exploited from the ground-breaking NGTC design, which also features a unique design of Mountune engine.
“Very good. There are still things I want to change. We’ve still got a lot of gains to come with the chassis, not talking about in the wet but the dry.”
He also pointed towards the team’s upcoming aerodynamic tests as a potential source of performance and admitted that both he and the engineering team at BMR, led by Plato’s long-term colleague Carl Faux, have already formulated a number of updates to implement onto the quartet of Levorgs in time for the next three rounds at Snetterton in late July.
“We’ve got some aero work to come, we have our wind tunnel test on Wednesday. We’ve got new updates planned for Snetterton, which is less drag and a bit more downforce and we’re going to keep moving on with our development of the chassis.”
“We’re not quite right yet. Somewhere near, and every step down this line we get better and better and better. We’re in a great shape.”
He also sent out an ominous message to the rest of the 32-strong field, insisting that his recent return to form behind the wheel is simply the beginning of a journey with the Levorg that will eventually see it grace some of the most successful models of touring car.
“It’s only going to get better for us. We’re still learning, we’ve done no testing really, we’re going to get that in the summer and I’m getting more confident in the car and making it my car now. It takes time to become one with a bit of kit that I’ve never driven before.”
Despite the vast number of positives, Plato also conceded that the team need to be allocated more boost by TOCA to ensure a parity on engine performance. He referenced the claims by some that he is prone to ‘whinging’ about the subject, and presented some evidence to argue BMR’s case for an upgrade.
“We need more boost, and this isn’t just a whinge; we know, because we’ve got data.”
“We overlay the graphs from the MG, because that’s our team. We know what the Ford produces because, funnily enough, there’s Mountune!”
“So we know, and I don’t care what anyone else says, we know we’re 35 horsepower off what we should have. And the only way we can get that is by more boost.”
“Hopefully TOCA will come to that conclusion. It’s not about lap time, lap time is irrelevant, it’s about straightline performance and we’re lacking but I have trust and faith in them that they’ll arrive at the right decision.”
When quizzed on if he can still challenge for this years title, which would be Plato’s third, come Finals Day at Brands Hatch this October, the two-time winner remained coy on his chances but refused to rule a late charge into the championship fray out.
“Possibly, if we get a bit more straightline speed. Possibly so, but we need that.”