3) Jason Plato
Love him or loathe him, Jason Plato will always entertain in the British Touring Car Championship, his undisputed superpower seemingly being able to keep the title fight going up until the final round of a BTCC season.
2014 looked set to elude him earlier than expected however, until the double champion decided to ignore the pressure of a title fight and enjoy his racing in the remaining three meetings of the season, which brought him ironically in with a better chance to win than he had all year.
Ultimately, he will feel that BMW had an edge that he and MG could not match this season – by regulations or development race reasons otherwise – but Plato’s calm attitude at Silverstone warranted a double win and kept the fight going to Brands Hatch, where he still had to settle for second best to Colin Turkington.
The season began with misfortune for Plato too early it seemed, as he was left stranded on the race two grid at Brands Hatch before a retirement at Thruxton really hit hard, a half-spinning Mercedes of Adam Morgan heading into his path leaving Plato well and truly on the back foot.
Plato ended the season only two wins shy of Turkington with six, three of those coming in the final two meetings as MG finally grabbed bragging rights off great recent rivals, Honda.
No malice thankfully appeared between the top two in the championship despite the Oulton Park nudge that saw Plato penalised, Knockhill a racing incident and Brands Hatch’s coming together at Paddock Hill Bend occurring after the title had been decided in Turkington’s favour.
Plato was left pleased by both MG and his own hard work in 2014, saying: “Just reward for three years hard work? I think so. As a team, we’ve done a brilliant job.”
Quite where he’ll be sitting in 2015 is to be discovered, although rear-wheel drive machinery has appealed massively to the man who won the title back in 2001 and 2010.
