Jason Plato admitted that he took a gamble which “paid off” in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s recent visit to Croft, the Team BMR man just 10 points from the top spot at the halfway stage.
As the first half of the experienced BTCC ace’s maiden season with Warren Scott‘s outfit came to a conclusion, Plato was left relieved after taking a gamble to give himself clear air at the rear of the field in race one of the day, after qualifying just 12th on the grid with 75kg of success ballast.
“The gamble in race one paid off”, said Plato, referring to the decision to effectively sacrifice race one of the weekend to salvage two solid results in the latter pair of encounters.
“The decision itself came pretty much immediately after I saw that I was 12th. You have to look at the percentages. Had I gone out in 12th with maximum ballast and the soft tyre it could have ruined the weekend.”
The outcome of the decision was highly encouraging, third on the grid in race two converted into second place after the Volkswagen CC man lunged inside race one winner Andy Priaulx‘s BMW on lap three at Tower Bend.
Fifth place went Plato’s way in race three, leaving the double champion just 10 points adrift of championship leader Gordon Shedden heading into the summer break until 8/9 August.
“I’m pretty pleased with the weekend and where we are – we’ve only given away a handful of points at a circuit which on reflection isn’t going to be one of our strong ones this year.”
Admitting that Croft was not a circuit he expected to be , Plato remains much more optimistic ahead of the summer break, heading next to a Snetterton circuit he was won at 12 times in BTCC since 1997.
“For the second half of the year we’ve got a lot of circuits where we’re going to be very strong and only Knockhill where I think we might struggle a bit”, added Plato.
“We’ve got one of our bogey circuits out of the way, but at Snetterton I think we’ll be very quick.”