SEAT end Vauxhall domination?

SEAT can be provisionally crowned BTCC Champion at Brands Hatch on Sunday – a feat that would end rival Vauxhalls five-year reign at the top. The Spanish make currently enjoys a 92-point cushion over Vauxhall which has won every Manufacturers’ crown since 2001.

If SEAT, now in its third BTCC season, leaves Brands with an 82-point lead it is effectively guaranteed the title. It is also in the running for the Teams’ title, although has a 41-point gap to make up on leader Team Halfords.

But SEAT can be optimistic of a strong performance at Brands – its Leons, in the hands of James Thompson and Jason Plato, won all three opening rounds of the season there in April. Plato will be in action this weekend, joined by Darren Turner in his fourth and final outing for the team in 2006.

Plato, just married to fiancée Sophie, said: “I’ve never been happier in my life than I am right now and I’m really looking forward to starting my first race as a married man! We’re on the verge the Manufacturers’ title and can still win the Teams’ trophy, but the job’s not over yet and we have to remain very focused. The Leon works well around the Brands Indy circuit, but the racing’s extremely close there and it’s easy to get caught up in somebody else’s accident.”

The 2001 champion, who mathematically still has an outside chance of winning the Drivers’ title, added: “Darren and I have a very good chance of repeating what we’ve done at Snetterton and Knockhill recently and qualify first and second. When we’ve had a good qualifying session this year we’ve had a good race day. On saying that, we’ve had an awful lot of bad luck as well, yet we’re still leading the Manufacturers’ championship, so I’m pretty confident we can achieve something very special this weekend.”

Turner knows his chief role is to score points for SEAT, but he is also hungry for a maiden BTCC race win – at Knockhill recently he was twice excluded from second place finishes. Furthermore, Brands marks his second meeting a row with SEAT, meaning he doesn’t have to settle back into the Leon after racing overseas for Aston Martin in America’s Le Mans Series.

The 32-year-old added: “I haven’t been back to America to race in the ALMS since my last BTCC outing, so it’s not like I’ll have to dial my way back into the SEAT Leon like I have had to do, so coming straight from racing it at Knockhill will be a big help.

”It’s my first back-to-back BTCC meeting, so I’m really looking forward to Brands Hatch. We know the Leon works well around the Indy circuit, so maybe we can have the same qualifying performance that we had at Knockhill and a little bit more luck in the races. The main thing at Brands Hatch is to score Manufacturer points, but if an opportunity comes up for me to win a race I’ll grab it.”

Other titles that could be won, provisionally, at Brands Hatch include the Independents Trophy’s Drivers’ and Teams’ championships, which are currently headed by outright series leaders and defending champions Matt Neal and Team Halfords respectively.