Only ‘luck’ keeping Jason Plato in the hunt

Only ‘lucking in’ is keeping Jason Plato in the title hunt, following his fortunate race two victory at Oulton Park. That’s the verdict of the reigning BTCC Champion, who won at Oulton Park thanks to the collision between the leading Hondas, but says all of his 2011 victories have been opportunist, and there is still a disparity between normally aspirated and turbo machinery.

Going into the weekend TOCA had implemented a weight break for cars running to S2000 regulations, including the Racing Silverline Chevrolets, dropping their base weight by 25kg to 1145kg, in a bid to bring them on a par with the turbocharged NGTC machinery.

TOCA have also introduced a suspended change that consists of a boost reduction of 0.05 for NGTC turbo cars, which can be introduced immediately at TOCA’s discretion. This follows a reduction of 0.1 bar for the Thruxton weekend in early May as TOCA continue to monitor the performance of the cars in order to balance the normally aspirated machines with their turbocharged colleagues.

These moves aren’t enough though for Plato, who told TouringCarTimes after race three that he believes further steps are necessary to ensure the performances of all types of machinery are equal for the remainder of the season.

TcT: You picked up a win this weekend, is that better than you expected coming to Oulton Park, or worse?

“It’s better. But we lucked in didn’t we, as the two Hondas took each other off at the final corner. All the wins I’ve won this year have been opportunist, lucky wins.

“The two wins at Brands Hatch were because the Honda crashed at the first corner and I was able to get in front and once I’m in front I can use the abilities of my car, which is it corners well and hold them back.

“Then in the second race I got a great start and was ahead so I could hold them back. At Thruxton I had no weight and all the quick cars were at the back on the reverse grid so I lucked in. I got drawn first out of the hat so got into the lead, and can win from there.

“But what I can’t do is compete. I can’t overtake. I can’t even overtake what you would normally consider to be slow cars and drivers who perhaps aren’t in the best machinery. But really I’m in the best machinery in the world here, and it’s very frustrating.”

TcT: What was your reaction when the two Hondas went off in front of you?

“Thanks very much chaps.”

TcT: Following the equalisation measures pre-Oulton Park, did you expect the Honda’s to still be quicker than you?

“Absolutely. We’ve been saying this all along, that they’ve got so much up their sleeves it’s unbelievable. This isn’t an argument against Honda, as all they’re doing is producing the car to the regulations.

“I don’t have an issue with them, they’ve done a brilliant job, a brilliant job. My problem is that I’m in a brilliant outfit here, best car, best team, and we’re nowhere, we’re lucking in. My experience has brought me the wins I’ve got. But if you take me out of the equation, just imagine I don’t turn up, what then? Normally aspirated cars would be nowhere.

“We know how much they’ve got performance wise, we’re clever people. And all we’ve ever said is we want parity, performance parity, which is promised in the regulations and the reason we’re getting frustrated is we are past 40% of the way through the championship and it is nowhere near, so it is frustrating.”

TcT: You still are in the title battle though, by ‘lucking in’. How long can you continue to remain in the hunt?

“Chances will diminish as time goes on, you have the turbo guys and they’ll improve their cars and the advantage will get bigger.

“The question is this. In the regulations it states that there will be full equality from the best normally aspirated car to the best turbo car, with performance equalisation, i.e engine performance, not chassis performance. From what you see, bearing in mind I’m the best normally aspirated car and Matt Neal is the best turbo charged car, and if I tell you that is a fact, that regulation, from what you see, do you think there is performance equalisation?”