Jason Plato: Colin Turkington deserves the title

Polesitter Jason Plato sportingly conceded that Colin Turkington deserves to take the BTCC crown at Brands Hatch tomorrow, and says he is just out to win races and take the manufacturer crown for MG.

The Triple Eight driver made the best of the changeable conditions in qualifying to top the times, with his championship rival in fourth position.

Plato needs to close the gap to Turkington by seven points in the first race tomorrow for the fight to continue into the second race, but says this is not on his mind.

He said: “I’m here to win races this weekend as I can’t realistically catch Colin tomorrow. I wouldn’t wish a total disaster of a day on Colin tomorrow, and that’s what he needs to have for me to win; I don’t want to win a championship like that either.

“They’ve done a brilliant job this year. Colin has drive exceptionally well, his team have provided him with an amazing car, and if they lost the championship through a crash or a bad weekend, it wouldn’t be fair. They deserve to win and I genuinely mean that.”

Plato said he enjoyed the challenge of extracting a fast lap in changeable conditions on the classic Grand Prix circuit.

He said: “Those conditions are always when a driver relishes having a go, it’s not about the setup, it’s not about what car has an advantage, it’s about what the bloke behind the wheel does. I love it when it’s like that, it’s a trip into the unknown, it’s a bit like Russian roulette; you load the gun, you spin the barrel and you pull the trigger, but you don’t know what you’re going to get until you’re in the middle of the corner.

“On my pole lap I had a moment in Hawthorn where I bit off substantially more than I did the lap before and it bit me hard; I was sideways in the middle of the road doing 120 mph.

“It puts us at the sharp end of the grid and hopefully we can control proceedings from there. The game plan for this weekend is to win some races and to finish. We’ve got to take the manufacturer’s title home for MG.”

Sam Tordoff made it an MG one-two in qualifying, and he says his goals are the same as his team-mate’s.

He said: “In hindsight perhaps we didn’t go quick enough to slicks, and Jason had the jump on us and got another lap in. It’s great to have a one-two, and it’s really good for MG. Pace-wise we’re in good shape wet or dry and I’m very happy with the car. Now I’ve just got to get off the line well tomorrow and have three good races.

“We had some great results here last year and I’m not too worried about tyre wear. I think we’re the car to beat round here and it’d be nice to win the title for MG. We’re here as a manufacturer team, I’m a manufacturer driver, so if we can be the team to break the recent Honda domination then that would be a really important achievement for all involved.”