Plato leaves it late to race up the grid

HONORARY Geordie Jason Plato managed to pull something out of the hat in the closing seconds of qualifying to start today’s first BTCC race from eighth on the grid.

After a year the Tynesideeducated favourite would rather forget, the two-time champ may finally be getting somewhere with his Adrian Flux Subaru Racing Levorg as he set his best time on his last lap of the day.

But while he may finally be starting from a relatively high position given his run of terrible luck this year, the man behind the whole Levorg project is still 1.238secs adrift of polesitter Jack Goff.

The BMWs of Colin Turkington and Rob Collard both topped the timesheets in the early part of the session, but nine minutes in, Goff – who had been fastest in second free practice – moved to the top in his Eurotech Honda Civic with a 1:56.039min lap.

As the session reached mid-point, Halfords Yuasa Racing driver Matt Neal came in from a dramatic-but-quick lap and then failed the ride height inspection, forcing him to come back out and start all over again.

With just under seven minutes to run, Goff came back out and smashed his own fastest time as he dipped under the 1.55s with a 1:55.786.

Ash Sutton once again was the best of the Subaru Levorg drivers, but gave himself some extra work to do when he had a quick lap disqualified for exceeding track lim- its. However, it did little to trouble the youngster who set off on another quick one, racking up personal best times in the first and second sectors, before catching up with Turkington to get himself a tow over the line.

This put him in third place, while yellow flags waved around the track to deal with an off by Matt Simpson, and from here it was clear no one was going to better their time.

In fact, the only driver who still had something left in the tank was Plato as he stormed to his best lap, while up at the front, Goff celebrated his first pole

“This has been a long time coming and the team has worked so hard, particularly after the terrible couple of months we’ve had, with a bad round at Oulton and then Jeff (Smith’s) crash at Croft last month,” he said.

“We had a few issues after FP2 so made a couple of changes and it was like a different car there in qualifying. It’s perfect right now and I think it’s looking good for the races.”

Also back out this weekend after the long summer break is North Yorkshire’s Max Coates, who reignites his Renault UK Clio Cup challenge. The Scorton driver will line up fifth in today’s first race and second in the other.