Fiery end to dominant weekend for Jason Plato

He was the class of the field for most of the Oulton Park event – so even a fiery end to the day couldn’t dampen the spirits of double race winner Jason Plato.

The Triple Eight MG driver took pole after completing just four laps in qualifying, and took a lights-to-flag victory in the first race of the day.

He repeated the feat with maximum ballast with another textbook drive in race two, only for race three to end in spectacular fashion with an engine fire, which he believed was down to a component failure.

Plato’s weekend’s haul means he is just seven points behind series leader Matt Neal heading into Croft.

“Most importantly we have advanced the car considerably, which is the exciting thing, as that will carry forward for the rest of the year,” said Plato to TouringCarTimes.

“It is a historic day really. A front row for me and Sam and the first one-two. Two wins for me, an engine fire in race three – but these things happen, don’t they? A really great weekend.

“The result in race three won’t dampen down my enthusiasm to have a G&T tonight!

“We have made a big leap forward with the car, so we are looking forward to the next one. I have got a funny feeling we are going to be dominant.”

Reflecting on the fire in race three, Plato added: “We have looked at the data, and there were some strange things going on in the engine, just before I had the fire.

“There was a little motorway shunt down at the hairpin. Everyone got into each other, but it wasn’t something that doesn’t happen every other week. It wasn’t a particularly big hit on the front.

“But coming out of Druids, just before I was about to brake, I felt something wasn’t right. And then when I braked, that’s when the fire came.”