Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship star Jason Plato says the competition will be no harder to win this season despite the fact that there will be seven title winners on the grid this season.
The MG6 racer, who took the championship in 2001 and 2010, thinks he will be right at the front of the pack this season after some upgrades to the Triple Eight Race Engineering-run car and its aerodynanmic bodywork.
He will go up against former champions Matt Neal, Gordon Shedden, Andrew Jordan, Fabrizio Giovanardi, Colin Turkington and Alain Menu, but he says he doesn’t fear any of them.
“The British Touring Car Championship has never been easy to win for as long as I have taken part, even when there weren’t seven champions in it,” said Plato. “It is tough enough as it is, and I don’t think that it is going to get any harder this season.
“I am looking to having some great races with not just my old professional mates like Menu and Giovanardi but all the others. Everybody is going to be out there trying their hardest.”
Plato won eight races last term but finished third in the standings after some reliability problems with parts that were not related to the team.
Plato said: “Had it not been for our DNFs last season – and we had far too many of them – then we would have been in with a shout of the title at the end of the year. We let it get away. We lost wins though things going wrong on the car and it was from parts that weren’t built by us. This year is the last year of a three-year deal with MG and we are better prepared than we have ever been before. We will definitely be in with a chance.”
Plato will be looking to extend his record of victories. He is the most successful driver in the British Touring Car Championship in terms of overall race victories. He has 82 victories. The next most successful active driver is Matt Neal, with 52 race wins.
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