The Rockingham rain put a bit of a dampener on the MG KX Momentum Racing team’s weekend as lead driver Jason Plato lost ground in the championship fight after looking set to dominate.
Having controlled proceedings from first practice through to race one, where Plato crushed the opposition with a commanding performance, all looked rosy for the two-time champion to make inroads on Matt Neal’s championship lead.
However, when heavy rain hit the circuit, it was a repeat of the Thruxton races earlier in the season as Gordon Shedden and the Honda Yuasa Racing Civics came to the fore, taking wins in races two and three to take the lead in the title fight and edge slightly further away from the lead MG.
Despite missing out on more wins, Plato was pleased to leave with three podiums and further knowledge of the car to boost his confidence heading into the final two rounds of the campaign.
“I’m naturally thrilled with three podiums and encouraged by what we have learnt about the car over the course of the day,” he said. “We leave this weekend almost where we started it-In touching distance of the championship lead and moving onwards to Silverstone and then Brands Hatch I’m confident we are in a strong position to challenge for the crown.”
Teammate Andy Neate suffered more when the rain came down. He had clocked up his best weekend so far in 2012 but ended race two in the gravel, but says there were positives to be taken away.
“We came to this weekend hopeful for three solid results,” he said, “qualifying and race one lived up to the promise but then race two was a short lived affair which really damaged chances of getting much from race three. I can take the positives of Saturday away from this weekend and am glad I could show my pace.”
Despite his drivers’ optimism, team principal Ian Harrison was left rueing the way the day panned out – conceding although the championship was still possible, it was now more of a long-shot.
Said Harrison: “A bit of a frustrating day really, if the weather had stayed dry we would certainly have been much stronger as our wet set-up wasn’t quite there in comparison with the Hondas.
“We leave not having made enough inroads, the championship is still mathematically possible but it’s going to be a tough challenge.”
