PLATO: AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM
Jason Plato is back, and he’s angry. The veteran two-time champion ploughed straight back into controversy in Saturday’s qualifying when he baulked Jake Hill’s final flier at the chicane while he was heading for the pits in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.
What made Plato fume was an official who, apparently in all seriousness, suggested that the bespectacled 53-year-old was perhaps getting a bit old and maybe his eyesight wasn’t as good as it once was.
What followed on Sunday was three very strong races for Plato. From 11th on the grid, he raced to sixth in race one, losing out in a fight with Dan Cammish and Rory Butcher. In race two he improved to fifth after being passed by Dan Rowbottom. And in the finale he pipped Hill for second, just 4.8s behind winner Ash Sutton after starting four places behind him.
The tricky conditions in the final race arguably mitigated what Plato felt was a straightline speed disadvantage, hence his being relatively easy prey to Cammish and Rowbottom in the earlier encounters. “I don’t mind being overtaken into a corner, but I can’t stand someone breezing past me on the straights,” he remarked.
“We’re making progress, we’re honing the car, but everyone can see we need more motor. It could be that we’ve got a draggy car aero-wise, but that doesn’t make sense if people in front are cutting a hole in the air for me and I still can’t get close. Or we might need improvements on the charge cooling, although we’ve made really good gains on that in the past 18 months and I doubt there’s more to come.”
He’s fighting on track and off, back on the podium, and he’s third in the standings, just eight points off the summit…