Why a BTCC legend remains defiant at '97 not out'

A 53-year-old veteran was a notable omission from the British Touring Car Championship grid last year. But as lockdown begins to lift, the shackles are also about to be released from a recharged and rejuvenated Jason Plato, who is showing no signs of calling time on his career.

The two-time BTCC champion isn't everyone's cup of tea but his talent in touring cars, backed up by 97 BTCC race wins, cannot be questioned. It has to be said, he’s the character that perhaps was the missing piece of the puzzle from the paddock in 2020.

Plato finds himself in an unusual position of heading into this season having sat out the 2020 campaign after his Power Maxed Racing team elected to withdraw from fielding two full-time entries and roll over its budgets to 2021. It was the first time since 2003 that the BTCC was contested without Plato, who was left to sit on the sidelines and watch his PMR resort to running a single car for multiple drivers at six of nine meetings in 2020.

The unexpected COVID-19 induced break provided a rare opportunity to reflect, resulting in the tin top veteran asking himself some probing and potentially career-changing questions about his own BTCC future.

Suffice to say those questions that flirted with the prospect of calling time on his BTCC career were answered with a resounding ‘no’ - the door slammed firmly shut as if he was protecting the lead entering the final lap of a race.

“I’ve been in this series for a long time and before a year is done you are already planning for the next, so you never really get an opportunity to sit and reflect and even ask a simple question like, ‘Am I still enjoying this?’” says Plato.

“When you are in the moment you never really get the chance to ask yourself that. If you do ask it after a bad week, you always immediately have this knee-jerk reaction saying, ‘Of course I am’. You never really get a chance to analyse it.

Jason Plato, Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“I wasn’t really interested in BTCC at the start of the year (2020). I just switched off and the thought of retirement never really crossed my mind, it really didn’t. As soon as I have those thoughts - and I did have them after two really rough years I had a couple of years ago - I batted them away once I got myself in a better environment. I loved 2019, I really enjoyed it.

“The whole lockdown thing gave me a chance to sit back and think about it. I was pleasantly surprised, because I didn’t know where that thought process was going to end up to be honest.

“It was a really useful exercise to have been given the opportunity to sit and think about things in the cold light of day, without being on the motor racing hamster wheel where you are pedalling all the time. I sat and thought, ‘Do I want to do this?’ and actually I never doubted it. The answer was ‘Yes’, so that is great.

"At the minute, this 'having enough thing’ is just not in my vocabulary" Jason Plato

“Consequently batteries have been recharged and I’m ready, and I can’t wait to get going.

“It is very simple to me. If I’m wanted by teams and I still want to get up in the morning and go do it and I still enjoy it and I’m competitive, and I can get all the commercial side of things right, I’ll do it until I’ve had enough. At the minute, this 'having enough thing’ is just not in my vocabulary.”

He may not be the fresh faced Plato that lit up the BTCC in the iconic yellow and blue Williams Renault Laguna in his debut year in 1997, but the fire and desire for success is showing no signs of burning out. And it’s not hard to see why.

Plato, a title winner in 2001 and 2010, has won more BTCC races than any other driver and is closing in on a remarkable century. In fact, his last race appearance in the championship, the final race of the 2019 season at Brands Hatch, resulted in victory.

Jason Plato 2019 BTCC Brands GP

Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images

Gearing up for what will be his 22nd season in the BTCC, Plato believes that he’s lost none of his speed and is capable of challenging for an elusive third crown.

“I do actually,” says Plato, when asked if he believes he is capable of a title attack.

“I subscribe to the view that as you get a bit older and if you ever lose any lap time, the reason for that is because it's not in your heart or your head anymore. I think the actual mechanics and the physicality of driving a racing car is just in you.

“I know where the limit is, I know what the tyre wants, etc, etc. If you're prepared to get up in the morning and work hard at it, and still have the passion, I don’t think you lose time as you get older. I think that happens when it stops being the most important thing in your life, that’s how I view it.”

The task of winning the BTCC doesn’t get any easier with time according to Plato, who last reached the summit driving an RML Chevrolet Cruze at the end of the Super 2000 era - subsequently replaced by the NGTC rules that have remained in place ever since. New forces have come to the fore in the 11 years since then, as the likes of Colin Turkington, Ash Sutton, Dan Cammish, Andrew Jordan and Tom Ingram have been regularly fighting over championships.

PLUS: The BTCC Brexit that's thrived for a decade

In fact, the last four championships have been shared between four-time champion Turkington and now two-time winner and reigning champion Sutton. Both will once again be among the contenders this year in their respective West Surrey Racing BMW and Laser Tools Racing Infiniti. They will be joined by Ingram, now piloting an Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai, while Rory Butcher, a challenger in his own right, has taken Ingram’s place at the factory backed Speedworks Toyota outfit.

Jason Plato 2010 BTCC Brands Hatch

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Long-time adversary Matt Neal is absent from the grid for the first time since 1991 along with a title contender for the last two years in Cammish. But Team Dynamics has managed to draft in three-time champion Gordon Shedden after his WTCR sojourn. It’s a move likely to add some spice to the title fight and another old rival for Plato to lock horns with.

PLUS: Why the BTCC elite should fear Shedden's return

Plato is aware there will be threats up and down the pitlane, further outlining how tough a challenge winning the BTCC is in 2021.

"I’m genuinely a bit sad that Matt [Neal] is not there as I think he has still got a lot to offer. I was looking forward to having as bit of rumble with him and getting under his skin and vice versa" Jason Plato

“On paper you could argue it is the toughest one [championship] ever and there are lots of reasons for that,” he says. “One reason is, and this has only really happened in the last few years when they went to the bigger tyre, but tyre management isn’t really important any more.

“Back in the old days you really had to be really good at managing your tyres. They are pretty easy to manage now. I think they are too good and too robust.

“Also all the engineers have move around to different teams over the last eight or nine years, so all the intel has been passed from team to team, so pretty much every car is pretty sorted. If you can’t sort it, the delta between a good guy and really good guy is probably about a couple of tenths so it’s really competitive.

“Then you have the BTCC success ballast and reverse grids, so it is really getting harder and harder each year. Every single round counts and you can’t afford to have one bad event. It is a really tough thing to win, it really is.”

While he is ready to lock horns with his rivals again, Plato admits he will miss racing without his old sparring partner, three-time series winner Neal.

Matt Neal, Jason Plato BTCC Snetterton 2006

Photo by: Motorsport Images

The pair have provided plenty of entertainment on and off the track, which in turn helped galvanise and put some spice back into the BTCC that was trying to recover and rebuild after the collapse of the Super Touring boom in the early noughties. Arguably the most famous clash erupted when the duo almost came to blows in the pitlane after contact in qualifying at Rockingham in 2011.

“I’m genuinely a bit sad that Matt is not there as I think he has still got a lot to offer,” he says.“I was looking forward to having as bit of rumble with him and getting under his skin and vice versa, so I’m sad he won’t be around.”

There is no doubt Plato is up for the battle but the next question regarding a title bid will surround his PMR Vauxhall Astra. The car, debuted in 2017, is now fast becoming the elder statesman on the grid among the newer WSR and now Ciceley run BMWs, Excelr8 Hyundais, Motorbase Fords, Dynamics and BTC Racing Hondas, Laser Tools Racing Infinitis, and the new-for-2021 the Team Hard Cupras.

While PMR was without its lead driver last year for its part campaign, the team’s best result was an 11th and a pair of 12th place finishes at Thruxton in the hands of the experienced Rob Austin.

However, Plato is not concerned by his machinery and is convinced he and new team-mate Daniel Lloyd will be on the pace. Indeed, the early signs look promising as Plato ended the official pre-season test at Silverstone fifth fastest, while Lloyd was ninth overall.

“I have a new shell for this year so there are no concerns from fatigue side of things,” he says.

“Obviously road car aerodynamics does move along over the years. I don’t know the drag of all the other cars but I do know where we are and that is not one of our strengths. It is not the most efficient through the air but that is what we have to work with and we will try to improve it with efficiencies with what is going in the engine bay with ducting and the rest of it. The basic shape we are stuck with.

Jason Plato, Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“At least now the engine parity, for want of a better expression, is much closer than it’s ever been and that is a good thing. We shouldn’t be having cars that are three or four miles per hour faster down the straights compared to other cars.

“We are on the numbers, we are at the sharp end of the grid at the test, so we will have to wait and see what comes around when the season kicks off. But certainly from the end of 2019 until now, I don’t think there has been a massive step forward [with the package].

“Everything is pretty optimised. I’d be surprised if we are not competitive. I think we will be competitive and if you are in the mix then it is down to racecraft and trying to stay out of trouble.”

“The only downside of getting 100 wins is it will cost me a few quid as I will have to have a party” Jason Plato

Should the team need to play catch up this season, Plato believes BTCC and TCR Europe race winner Lloyd, a former graduate of his KX Academy young driver programme, will prove a perfect foil in helping PMR close the gap to the front.

“He is a proper driver, he knows how to win, he’s quick and annoyingly young and good looking,” says Plato of Lloyd. “One of the nice things is that in the three days of testing we have had, he appears to like the same feelings in the car that I do and more importantly dislikes the same feeling that I dislike, so that should help us cover the ground a bit faster. Listening to his feedback, I trust what he says.

“He is going to be fast and he is going to be a pain in the arse, and quite honestly that is how it should be.”

Jason Plato 2021 BTCC media day

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography

It’s pretty clear Plato is a racing driver showing no signs of hanging up his helmet and that should be a warning to the BTCC grid ahead of this weekend's Thruxton season opener. Even if he does go on to claim a history-making century of BTCC wins, that could just be the catalyst to spur him to continue his love affair with the UK’s premier series.

“In all honesty it is just a number,” he adds. Whatever the number is, it will be a nice thing to look back on when I stop.

“If I get to 100 I will want more, that’s how I view it. I don’t want to appear glib but it is just a number, but certainly I don’t want to stop at 99 I do want to get to 100.

“The only downside of getting 100 wins is it will cost me a few quid as I will have to have a party...”

Jason Plato, 2019 Brands Hatch BTCC

Photo by: JEP/Motorsport Images