Jason Plato: “We are on the ragged edge”

Jason Plato admitted that Team BMR was running ‘on the ragged edge’ after securing a lock-out of the front row for the latest rounds of the BTCC season at Croft.

After a tough season to date for the Subaru squad, Ash Sutton put his car on pole for the first time this year with Plato alongside him on the front row after an improved showing from the rear wheel drive cars.

However, he admitted there were still concerns over the fragility of the all new Subaru engine – with his own car undergoing an engine change overnight after issues at the end of qualifying.

“It’s pretty important to have put on a good performance today,” he said. “Today is the reason why I come racing – the last god knows how long hasn’t been. We’ve had all sorts of issues that we have been battling against and we still have them now; my engine was overheating for most of qualifying and it’s f**ked.

“However, the engine dramas have clouded everything else that we have been doing and underneath we have been making positive changes to the set-up that have taken my car in a different direction. I now have a car that I can feel more and can attack with – it speaks my language.

“There is now a little bit of performance increase from the engine but we are on the ragged edge with it – it’s so fragile. But everyone is working hard and we know that at some point, be that tomorrow or whenever, the planets will align and we’ll be on top.”

Plato goes into race day looking to score for the first time this season but insisted that his only focus was to try and push for a win – and not simply settle for putting points on the board.

“We are running to the maximum because there is no point in us just conserving things,” he said. “I would rather be in a position where we are leading the race and the engine lets go than be running around making up the numbers. For me, there is no better catalyst for dealing with an issue than for it to come when you are leading – what does it achieve running round playing it safe?

“If we push hard and something breaks then it breaks ,but this isn’t endurance racing; it’s all about going out there tomorrow and cracking on with it. Today is a nice metaphorical Gin and Tonic and we are where we should be, but we’ll have to see what tomorrow brings.”