Subaru pair agree to disagree over clash

Team BMR pair Jason Plato and Colin Turkington were left agreeing to disagree after their on-track clash during the second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Croft.

Turkington had secured his second win of the season in race one ahead of Plato, with the pair running in the same positions going into lap eight of race two. It was then however that Plato launched a bid to reclaim a lead he had held earlier in the race, only for the pair to clash at Tower as the second placed man made his move up the inside.

The resultant delay was enough to cost the pair the chance to take victory as Rob Collard nipped ahead in his BMW, with Plato ending up second and Turkington left to take the flag in third.

Both drivers quickly disappeared into the back of the team transporter after the podium for talks over the incident and whilst both agreed to move on and declared the matter closed, it was clear there were differing views over what had happened.

“It’s disappointing to lose a one-two finish and contact between team-mates isn’t something you expect to see,” Turkington said. “We have very differing opinions and that is something that will remain as we aren’t going to agree. I just feel for the team and for Subaru that we didn’t achieve what we should have done, but we just have to move on from it.

“My view is that if you are passing your team-mate, you make sure there is no risk so that things like this don’t happen but they did, and we aren’t going to agree on the matter.”

Plato, unsurprisingly, held a different view.

“I’m disappointed with what happened and there was clearly a misunderstanding in that Colin didn’t expect me to overtake like I did,” he said. “If you leave a gap then I’m coming through; I’m not going to mirror, signal, manoeuvre.

“I was up to his door when he turned in and to me, if you’ve left the door open like that, then let me through. If it’s the enemy then yeah, you hustle a bit, but not with your team-mate and he chose the wrong move.

“I was committed when I went up the inside and couldn’t change my course of action; I’d loaded the gun and pulled the trigger. I couldn’t just say ‘maybe not’ and pull out of the move, and in that situation, the guy on the outside has a choice to give the space or not.

“It’s disappointing as we’d have won that race but it won’t happen again as we had a meeting where the law was set down and it’s been made clear to us both that if your team-mate is coming through, you concede.”

Despite the incident, the pair have now closed to the fringes of the top ten in the championship standings going into the summer break.