Jackson surprised by Plato’s late race pace

Mat Jackson was surprised Plato’s tyres didn’t fall away late in the race, and hopes to use his advantage early in the race to challenge for his second win of the season.

Jackson, finished second in race one and the top independent in the Airwaves BMW, battling Plato throughout race one for the win, but with the tyre degredation expected to hit the front-wheel drive cars not hitting the Cruze, Jackson will have to rely on the BMW’s second strength.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Jackson said:
“The rear wheel drive is not so much an advantage now off the line. We can just about get the jump on the front wheel drive cars, but it’s still a jump, and we need to capitalise on that.”

The BMW’s rear-wheel drive advantage on the start has been capped this year by TOCA, by changes to the gear ratios to help equalize the cars.

On Plato’s pace, extending out to finish 1.8s ahead at the line, Jackson remarked:
“He was quick to start with and we stayed with him, but the time when we needed to get his tyres going off and ours coming on it seemed to change and worked the opposite way around.”

“We want to get a good start, we’ve been blessed with 36kg of ballast now which isn’t going to help us – but we have got what we’ve got, and we’re going to be trying our hardest to beat these boys”