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Plato takes pole at Brands Hatch

BTCC News | Sat 1st October 2011

Jason Plato claimed his fourth pole position of the season at Brands Hatch this afternoon.

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By Matt Lamprell

The Silverline Chevrolet driver set a time of 1:31.874 around the 2.3 mile Grand Prix circuit and will line up ahead of Vectra drivers Andrew Jordan and James Nash. Plato’s teammate Alex MacDowall will start fourth, making it a significant gap back to the first of his championship rivals, Gordon Shedden.

Shedden and Neal will fill the third row of the grid, starting fifth and sixth respectively, after what is the worst qualifying performance of the season for the Honda Racing team.

In a session that was fragmented by two red flags, Plato went top of the times early on, but was soon toppled. Neal and Shedden both had a stint at the top, only for Plato and MacDowall to make it a provisional 1-2 for Chevrolet.

That’s how it looked at the top of the times when Chris James went off at the exit from Hawthorn’s after his front right wheel broke.

The pause in proceedings benefitted Dynojet’s Frank Wrathall, who made it out on track for the first time once the session resumed. However, it was Wrathall’s desire to make up for lost time that was to cause the second red flag – his Toyota Avensis becoming stuck in the gravel on the outside of Clearways.

There were 14 minutes remaining when the session restarted again. Plato continued to make progress at the front, further reducing his laptimes. With two thirds of the session completed, it was Plato on provisional pole, with MacDowall in second.

However, over the course of the final few minutes, there was a series of quick times posted. Andrew Jordan was first up, going second in the Pirtek Racing Vectra. There were also quick laps from GoMobileUk.com’s Paul O’Neill and Team Aon’s Tom Onslow-Cole.

It was a case of ‘job done’ for Jason Plato, who returned to the pitlane a few minutes before the end of the session and saw out the last few moments on the pitwall, before receiving the congratulations of his RML team.

The front row was set with Jordan alongside Plato, but there was still time for James Nash to improve his position, despite being one of the last to cross the line after the chequered flag. Nash will start Sunday’s first race from third position, ahead of MacDowall, Shedden and Neal.

Mat Jackson will be hoping for a better weekend than he has experienced recently, starting from seventh on the grid. Paul O’Neill, Tom Onslow-Cole and Tom Chilton complete the top ten.

Jason Plato said, “I’m really, really pleased with that. My car was prefect. It’s very rare to get the car exactly where you want it, but that’s where we are with the Silverline Chevrolet at the moment. We had it two years ago with the Lacetti when we won all three races here, and we’ve got it again today.

“But, I think tomorrow will be a BMW day. I think we’ll see their cars come on during the race, so it’s definitely not going to be easy.”

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