Plato rallies against gas Focus
Championship favourite Jason Plato has rallied against the power of Team Aon’s LPG powered Ford Focus. Speaking to Autosport, Plato complained at the unfair straight-line speed advantage he believes the two Blue Oval machines hold over his Chevrolet Cruze and other similar machines.
“Looking at the speed traps they’re too quick in a straight line, way too quick”, said the 2001 BTCC Champion to Autosport. “At the Brands test their top speed was 3mph quicker down the straight than us, and that’s just not right for a car that has a less-aerodynamic hatchback shape than our Cruze and that is slower over a whole lap.
“I hope it is properly monitored and I trust TOCA to do that, because if they don’t it does away with all the good work the other teams have done.”
Despite topping the speed traps in both the morning and afternoon sessions on Media Day, Tom Chilton and Tom Onslow-Cole ended the day in fourth and eighth positions respectively on the time sheets.
Team Aon and their engine partners Mountune received dispensation from TOCA to run a turbocharged LPG powerplant, despite regulations permitting that the only turbo engines allowed would be the Swindon Racing Engines prepared NGTC unit.
On the official BTCC website, Series Director Alan Gow said that the LPG engine was, “A very interesting one and it’s vital, not just for the BTCC but also for motorsport in general, that we encourage the use of alternative fuels.
“Just as we are doing with the TOCA-NGTC engine in the Andrew Jordan/David Pinkney cars, we are closely monitoring these engines during the year and can very easily balance their performance characteristics (if and when necessary) to ensure performance parity.”
Team boss Mike Earle emphasised the green aspects of the engine to TouringCarTimes last week, saying, “It reflects the fact that motorsport like everything else has got to get itself a little bit cleaner – it definitely has an advantage on CO2 emissions, but on the particulates it’s amazingly cleaner – so yeah, it’s good and it’s brought us a whole new bunch of problems to solve, but we’re getting there”.
Earle also implied that with the NGTC rules coming into force in 2011 there could be another change in the regulations ahead.
“The alternative fuel rules are still there in the book – but it’s a case that they may take them out of the rules for next year so then we’ll have to think again”.
This means that the performance of the turbocharged LPG powerplant is likely to be monitored very closely, and if Plato’s comments are anything to go by, it won’t just be Gow and his team paying particular interest.
