Plato's Musings Part II
 Plato:
BTCC star and philosopher
In the second part of btcc.net’s in-depth interview
with Jason Plato, the SEAT Sport UK driver and former champion
gives rookie team-mate Robert Huff some sound advice, weighs
up the more established opposition and talks race tactics.
Firstly, Plato says he has been impressed by Huff’s
pace and attitude – the winner of SEAT’s Holiday
Inn Cupra Championship has wasted no time in asserting himself
and dishing out just as good as he gets from the likes of
Muller, Thompson, Neal, Reid and Plato himself.
There have been podium results, too, but Plato says Huff
needs to be careful to avoid falling into a similar trap as
he did as a feisty BTCC rookie back in 1997.
“Rob’s done a good job. At Brands Hatch he drove
incredibly well like an old pro’,” says Plato.
“His pace has perhaps surprised a few but he’s
probably getting involved in too many accidents.
Plato rates team-mate Huff but says he doesn't want him to
fall into the same trap as he did as a BTCC rookie
“It’s easy to get labelled as a crasher, which
he perhaps doesn’t deserve, but it’s starting
to stick. It happened to me when I started in ’97 –
there’s an over eagerness. He must be careful it doesn’t
bite him.”
On the subject of robust driving, Plato holds back in criticising
Anthony Reid’s ill-fated overtaking move on James Thompson
at Silverstone, when the former’s WSR MG ZS pushed the
latter’s Vauxhall Astra out of the way to take the lead.
It led to Reid receiving a time penalty that elevated Plato
and Huff to second and third in the results.
“I wouldn’t knock Anthony for having a go at
James,” adds Plato. “There has to be a line that
mustn’t be crossed, but at 100mph gaps move and change
and cars change position on the track very quickly …
your view can be obscured. Usual thing: if it comes off you’re
a hero, if it doesn’t you’re not. None of us go
out there just to drive into one another. Reid’s pace
is also there. He’s fast.”
Matt Neal: fast but unlucky, according to Plato
While Plato’s views on “old mate” Yvan Muller
are well documented – “it’s commonly known
we don’t like each other” – what does he
think so far of the two other drivers he raced against in
the BTCC during the Nineties, Thompson and Matt Neal?
“Matt appears to be always so very unlucky,”
says Plato, “but on his day he’s bloody good.
He pulled a move on me at Mondello that was just stunning.
He did the same at Silverstone into Abbey that was proper
stuff. I had no answer. Maybe he and his team should be doing
a bit better with that car, but like I said I think he’s
been unlucky at times.
“James is just a canny lad, isn’t he? He’s
always there and he should be in that car. Out of them all
he tends to be the cleanest and there’s no quarter given
unless absolutely necessary.”
Plato is without doubt one of the championship’s entertainers,
enjoying a strong rapport with the thousands of fans who cram
through the gates to see their BTCC heroes in action. He is
in full support of the BTCC’s new three-race format
and its reversed race two grid rule which he believes has
only added to the series’ mass appeal.
Plato says the BTCC's reversed grid is a hit with the crowds
“The way the three-race format has worked out has really
impressed me,” he says, “and I really think the
reverse rule works: it’s thrown up a few surprises and
brings different tactics into it but, importantly, hasn’t
stopped the cream rising to the top. It works very well and
it’s clear the fans enjoy it.”
Indeed, Plato has worked the new rules to his advantage more
than most – deliberately dropping back inside the top
ten in the day’s first race to ensure a front row starting
grid position for the second has become part of his strategy.
It’s worked, too, with two victories so far, at Thruxton
and Mondello Park. Fifth in the championship is his reward,
although he has his eye on third by the season’s end.
Plato admits: “I’ll be dead honest and say an
ideal first race is for us to finish ninth or tenth and then
be at the front for race two. Then go out and win that, if
possible, and be on the front of the grid for race three and
try to pull off a second win. Had the safety car not come
out at Mondello (when he was leading the third race following
victory in the second) we would have done just that.
“The championship is not our game plan. It’s
to learn because we have no data to work on. I suppose we
throw the first race away and use it as a test bed to get
data. If we’ve got the pace we’ll try and do the
best we can. Then we can make improvements for race two and
see what we can get. We want to arrive next year and be in
a position to win the thing. Sometimes it might mean trying
a few whacky things on the car.
“If we could get third in the championship, what a
result. That would be stunning …”
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