Leaders take shape, as drivers criticize Ford’s advantage

Consistency is key as the championship lead pack takes shape. Neal pulls out a lead from Jason Plato after the weekend, but Steven Kane and Tom Onslow-Cole are right behind.

Many drivers however were highly critical of the Team Aon car, despite measures to equalise the performance being put into place at the weekend.

Matt Neal took an eighth, second and a win at Oulton Park to jump into an eight point lead of the championship for the Honda Racing Team.

Jason Plato took a brilliant win, after starting from 10th in the second race, though the Cruze suffered whilst carrying weight in the first and third races. Plato also wasn’t helped in race one by being helped off the track by Mat Jackson’s BMW.

Jackson received points on his racing licence for the move, but no position penalty.

Jackson’s Airwaves-BMW team mate Steven Kane, after a troubled qualifying session, finished 6th, 5th and 2nd in the thre races, fighting for the victory with Matt Neal in the final race of the day. As a result, Kane finds himself only 16 points behind the championship lead, and leads the independents’ trophy from Mat Jackson.

Tom Onslow-Cole took the greatest points haul of the weekend after a string of strong results, and moves up to fourth place in the championship after securing his second win of the season.

Much attention was raised by some drivers however about the straight line power advantage of the Ford Focus ST. Although the car was ordered to run with a revised restrictor setting on their turbo-chargers this weekend, a Team Aon Focus was the fastest car in every speed trap throughout every session during the weekend.

Series Director Alan Gow staunchly defends that drivers complaining will not encourage action on his part, but that TOCA will keep an eye on the empirical data on the performance of the Ford, and hasn’t ruled out further sanctions on the team in future rounds of the championship.

Jason Plato admitted that tapping Tom Onslow-Cole in the second race was deliberate in order to take the lead, as the 23 year old driver from Surrey drove defensively, using the straight-line acceleration advantage of the Ford to keep the Chevolet at bay.

Jason Plato, speaking to ITV Sport, said:
“Tom Onslow-Cole’s lifting off down the straight to force me one way, I’m not having that, either race or don’t, and if you’re not going to race, be prepared to get something up the back side. Rubbing’s racing.”

Plato received a reprimand for this move, as well as the retaliatory push to get past Jackson’s car earlier in the race, in addition to four penalty points on his racing licence

The next round of the championship is on June 20th at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire.