Silverline Subaru BMR Racing team-mates Jason Plato and Colin Turkington defended themselves after their collision in the second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Croft on Sunday.
On a weekend where Plato and Turkington scored 41 and 48 points respectively, the collision denied the pair a second one-two finish in succession on Sunday following Turkington’s second victory of the season in race one.
After swapping places twice in the opening five laps, lap eight saw contact occur when Plato stuck his Levorg inside that of Turkington heading into Tower Bend, Rob Collard inheriting the lead and a subsequent victory. Both had their opinions on the incident, but both agreed that the collision was a misunderstanding.
Speaking of the incident to The Checkered Flag afterwards, Plato said: “We had a little hiccup internally in the team, but we hope some good will come of that.
“A genuine misunderstanding. I’m not blaming him for that – we’re here to race.
“The door was wide open. If you leave the door wide open and your team-mate comes in committed, as the person who’s gone for the move, I have no more options. I can’t just chuck an anchor out the back.”
Turkington himself agreed that the collision should not have been in the BMR script, adding to TCF afterwards: “Obviously contact between team-mates is a no-no at any motorsport event.
“Jason has his view on it and I have mine. We’re never going to agree on it, so we need to just sit that to one side for now as we both survived.”
The collision was one that Turkington believes will not be a scenario that re-occurs in the future, adding that it will be something quickly dispensed from their memories over the summer break.
“I don’t think it will happen again”, added Turkington. “There was a one-two on the cards – that’s the disappointing bit. It didn’t materialise, but we live and learn. It’s water under the bridge now.”
