Jason Plato: “I could have gone faster”

Jason Plato believes that he could have gone even faster than his lap record breaking pole position time set in qualifying at Oulton Park.

The two-time champion beat his own lap record by six tenths of a second as he set a time of 1:25.484, just beating out rivals Matt Neal and Andy Priaulx by less than a tenth of a second.

“I’m pleased I did the laptime we thought I was going to do,” Plato told TouringCarTimes. “I could have done a 1:25.3 and I made a mistake at the hairpin, I was up on the lap at the hairpin and I went in a bit too hot and it’s cost me a tenth. It would’ve been a high-three, but a low-four, that’s alright.”

A worrying looking moment for Plato saw his Team BMR Volkswagen CC pull in to the pits with smoke billowing out of the left front wheel well, but Plato said there was nothing out of the ordinary and it was a simple brake fire.

“It was a late call to pit and it’s very hard on brakes,” he continued. “If you have a late call to the pits and you’re called to the scales you get heat soak and everything cooks.”

Plato will line up for race one with his arch rival Matt Neal alongside him, while Andy Priaulx will be directly behind the Team BMR driver with his rear-wheel-drive car, known for its faster starts that its front-wheel-drive counterparts.

“I think it’s going to be a great scrap tomorrow, a really great fight,” said Plato to TouringCarTimes. “I hope the BMW doesn’t beat me and Matt off the line, if it does it’ll probably beat us as it doesn’t have as much tyre deg and that wouldn’t be very nice because they shouldn’t have an advantage off the line, I wouldn’t have thought. That’s a concern but pace wise I think we’re OK.”