Jason Plato on cloud nine

Jason Plato says he is on cloud nine after his debut in the new Triple Eight Race Engineering NGTC MG6 saw him take the lead in the 2012 British Touring Car Championship after the opening round at Brands Hatch.

It was a result that surprised many given the two Triple Eight MGs did not even make it out on track for Friday afternoon’s installation lap session. However Saturday’s performance gave an indication of what was to come with Plato improving on his first practice finishing position of 19th to finish fifth in practice two and qualify sixth.

Race day bought further improvement from the double champion and new NGTC MG6, with Plato taking fourth in the first race, standing on third step of the podium after the second race and claiming victory in the third. Plato was later fined and had his racing license endorsed with three points.

However this did not affect his Championship points haul, which saw him net 52 points and take the lead of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship. Plato has a four point lead over defending Champion Matt Neal going into the second round at Donington Park on April 14-15.

Jason Plato had the following to say to TcT about his opening round results:
“It’s been an amazing weekend for us. It would have to be a pretty special team for me to leave RML but I had every faith and confidence in Triple Eight. They’ve done the most amazing job and I’m only one very small part of it. They’ve done an amazing job to turn a car from nothing into a pretty dominant display in race three, which was really special. We’re here now, we’ve got a good direction working with the car and there’s a lot of time still to come from it. I’m on cloud nine, it’s really good!”