Championship leader Jason Plato “at one with the car”
Championship leader Jason Plato hailed a weekend of significant progress at Oulton Park, and says he now feels “at one” with his new Team BMR Volkswagen CC.
Plato was the class of the field in Cheshire, topping both practice sessions and qualifying, before winning both the first two races and taking fifth in the finale.
The double champion now has a narrow three-point lead over Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden, with old sparring partner Matt Neal only eight points behind heading into Croft in a fortnight.
Assessing his performance at Oulton, Plato said: “It’s been a great weekend for us. Wins aside, the most important thing is I’m now becoming at one with the car. We’re really making some progress now.
“We’ve closed down some doors which are actually blind alleys. Every time the car comes out of the garage, we’re on the pace.
“This is a circuit I was confident we would be good at. That’s an inner confidence because I know I’m good around here, but also the progress we’ve made so far this year.
“The extra confidence gives you pace. For example, Cascades is a corner that unless you’re really confident, you’ll leave some time on the table because it will bite you if you’ve not got it right.
“In race one and two I was on it, letting the car slide. All that’s difficult becomes easier and you can get those extra tenths and hundreds out of the car.
“We’ve also made our car perform better with maximum ballast. We have a better balance with maximum weight than when we have less weight. It’s slower, but we have a friendlier car to drive.
“That’s one of the keys of touring cars. If you want to win this thing, you’ve got to carry weight, so you might as well get your car to work with it.”
Thoughts now turn to Croft, another track where Plato is confident his Volkswagen CC will shine.
“OK, we’ve got some weight on the car, but we can win races with weight. We’re in great shape,” said Plato.
“We should have won that race at Brands Hatch had I not had that puncture. If I’d have done that I’d have won five races out of four meetings, and I’m not sure I’ve every done that before.
“By any stretch of the imagination this is a great start to the year for me. We’ve had a DNF while leading, and I’m still leading the championship.
“This is when I’m at my most dangerous when I get this good feeling. We can win races and be very rapid at Croft.”
