Alliance Racing hit with fine for pit-lane incident with Plato Racing

Alliance Racing team owner Pete Osborne has been hit with a £1000 fine and has been referred to the stewards following an incident with Plato Racing boss Jason Plato at Brands Hatch this past weekend.

Osborne was deemed by officials to have used abusive language or behaviour and breached the Motorsport UK “Race with Respect” code of conduct.

The BARC statement read:

“After viewing video provided by Plato Racing and having discussed this incident with both Jason Plato and Peter Osborne, it is clear that Peter Osborne went to the Plato Racing pit straight after the race finished. He approached team principal Jason Plato and verbally threatened violence against Dan Rowbottom, this came as a result of an on-track incident between the car driven by Dan Rowbottom and that of Peter Osbornes’ son Sam.”

The incident referred to by the stewards came in the second BTCC race of the weekend after contact between Rowbottom’s Plato Racing Mercedes and the Ford Focus Titanium being driver by Osborne Jr.

Osborne had run wide and dipped a wheel into the gravel going through Paddock Hill Bend which meant he lost momentum heading up the hill to Druids, where yellow flags were being displayed due to Charles Rainford’s BMW having gone off on the previous lap.

Contact between Rowbottom and Osborne going into the corner saw the Focus spin off into the gravel where it made hit the stationary BMW, resulting in officials electing to throw out the red flag and bring proceedings to an early finish.