“Not a hope in hell” of leading at start, says Jason Plato

Triple Eight’s Jason Plato says there’s “not a hope in hell” of him leading Colin Turkington into turn one at Snetterton tomorrow, despite dominating qualifying this afternoon.

Plato said the rear-wheel drive BMW 125i will still have the advantage off the start, and weigh-corrected, the West Surrey Racing machine is on a par with his MG6 GT on qualifying pace.

The 2001 and 2010 champion said he was delighted to take pole, but said his ire at the performance of Turkington was not aimed at the driver or his team, but at series organisers TOCA for not penalising them.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes about his lap time, Plato said: “We were nearly 0.8 up after the first run. Had I nailed the lap I might have parked it, but I didn’t quite get the lap right.

“I don’t think the circuit was as quick [as in FP2] , but I should have done a 1.56.2. But it’s pole, and it’s good enough.

“The track got progressively slower. I think some oil went down as the car was doing some strange things – Sam [Tordoff] had the same thing going on.”

But asked if he had a chance of leading at the start, Plato said: “Not a hope in hell. I’m 0.7 up the road from all the other front-wheel drive cars, and yet he’s got 45kg on, he’s closest and he’ll lead into turn one.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I said nothing. Throughout the history of rear-wheel drive they’ve always been penalised, because you cannot bend the laws of physics.

“Let’s not forget that this formula was 100 per cent designed for front-wheel drive. Rear-wheel drive cars weren’t allowed in, but there was a concession. And they’re not penalised.

“And they are given concessions to change stuff, like new rear sub-frames, new geometry, engine a bit further back…”

Plato said if he was able to hold the lead he was confident of winning the race, but if he lost the lead at the start, second is the best he can hope for.

He said: “We might have a pace advantage in qualifying, but weight corrected, we’ve done the same time. We’ve got about 0.3 seconds on him with the weight advantage.

“And in the race, they’re kinder on their tyres, they have better traction, they can break harder than us and spread the brake load over all four tyres.

“It is just frustrating, because I’m not in a rear-wheel drive car, and it’s frustrating the organisers are doing nothing about it. It’s not on.”

Asked what needed doing to peg back the rear-wheel drive cars, Plato said: “They need weight on the car, and lower boost in first gear. They can do that – it’s a simple bit of mathematics.

“And they need to allow us a bit more freedom to develop our cars. We’ve hit the wall now – we cannot change our weight distribution because everything we have to use is too heavy; we don’t have a 50kg diff in the back of the car…and so it goes on.

“It’s a shame that despite the recommendations of all the front-wheel drive teams, they have chosen to ignore them.

“I’ve done a stellar job today and blown everyone away except Colin. I’m 0.7 up the road from my team-mate. And yet I’m going to get beaten into turn one. It hurts.

“That’s not me whinging, that’s fact. I’m just being honest and saying how it is.

“Hats off to WSR, they’ve done a brilliant job. Hats off to Colin, he’s a world-class driver. But we’re swimming, and the organisers are on our backs, pushing us under the water.”