Photo:

BMR admits miscalculation over race one swap

By

BMR team boss Warren Scott admits that his drivers miscalculated the position of the timing line during the opening race of the BTCC meeting at Knockhill after Ash Sutton missed out on a bonus point for leading a lap.

Team-mate Jason Plato had led the race from the start having snared pole position before moving over to allow Sutton through into the lead to given the reigning Jack Sears Trophy winner the additional point that comes from leading a lap.

Crucially however, the switch – which should have allowed Sutton to be classed as the leader at the end of lap 23 of 24 – came just after the pair had crossed the timing line, which is located at pit entry and not at the start line further up the main straight.

As a result, Plato was still leading by less than a tenth of a second as the pair crossed the line and was therefore classed as the leader of all 24 laps, with Sutton just picking up the 17 points that come from taking second place.

“There was a miscalculation on that one and the drivers messed up,” Scott said. “They thought that the timing line was at the start line rather than at the entry to the pits, so Ash missed out on the bonus point for leading a lap.

“That was what we – and them – wanted from the race and aside from that it was perfect; Jason drove really well and deserved the victory. I won’t go into details, but nothing happened in that race that put us in a position where we felt that we needed the drivers to change positions so Ash could win.

“The championship isn’t won until the end of the final race at Brands Hatch and we want to the drivers to go out there and race; we don’t want them to feel that they can’t.

“The missed point is just a slip-up and the only blip on what was a pretty perfect race.”