Jason Plato gave SEAT Sport UK a podium finish at Croft circuit today by coming from 13th on the grid to finish a brilliant 3rd in Round 15 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. It was a great race for the team, with James Pickford equaling his BTCC best with 4th and Luke Hines finishing 6th.

With half of the 30 round series now completed, SEAT Sport UK is happy with its season so far. It has scored 366 points and lies 2nd in the Manufacturers’ Championship, while Jason is the team’s top driver and is in 4th position in the Drivers’ Championship with 122 points.

The three BTCC races at Croft were extremely tough with hot and humid conditions making it all the more difficult for the drivers as in-car temperatures soared. Plato was on stunning form all weekend and almost finished on the podium in all three races. He finished 4th in the first race and was battling for 2nd place in the second when he had to make a pit stop to clear grass from the front air ducks. Jason drove a brilliant third race and stormed from 13th on the grid to finish 3rd.

James Pickford had understeer problems all day, but having finished 10th and 8th in the first two races he ran in 2nd place for much of Round 15 before equaling his best BTCC finish with 4th. Luke Hines crashed out of the first race and continued with a bad headache for the rest of the day. The SEAT Sport UK team did a magnificent job to get his Toledo Cupra fixed in time for the second race, and having finished 9th in that he started the final race from the front row of the grid. In that race he was running strongly in 3rd before a nudge from behind sent him sideways. He dropped places and held off Yvan Muller and Colin Turkington to finish 6th.

Jason said: “I was really chuffed in the third race to come from thirteenth to get a podium and the car was working really well. Our car is transformed when we take the ballast out and we’re able to be competitive but when we’re carrying weight it’s a different story. It’s been a frustrating weekend really; we should have had a third or a fourth in the second race if it hadn’t been for that coming together with Dan Eaves. In the third race I had a good car and balance was good as the weight was gone – when we take the weight off and the car’s good it’s as simple as that.

“I’ve been in the Stewards’ office twice today over the incidents in race two but both counts have been chucked out. Matt Neal left the door wide open and I went up the inside and we had a bit of contact and there’s not really much more to say than that. Dan tried to get through on the way into the Chicane and two cars don’t go side by side through there and neither of us wanted to give in. I had to turn right and Dan had to turn left and we both turned against each other until we both went off, it just one of those things. In general it’s been a tough weekend but we’ve come away with another podium so we can’t be too unhappy.”

James said: “I’m happy to have finished fourth in the final race although I would have been happier with third. I had a mega start and tried to stay with Dan Eaves and before long Matt Neal had found his way past me. I let him through as there was no point in me defending as I would have slowed myself down in the process and allowed everyone else to catch up. A couple of laps before the end of the race I suffered some understeer again and I was locking up all over the place and I saw a SEAT coming up behind me and soon realised it was Jason. I made a mistake and he found a way through but I’ve got no complaints about that at all because we work as a team. I’m really pleased with the result and we really needed it to happen here.

“It’s been a tough weekend because if you don’t qualify well it makes your whole weekend difficult and we had some problems with the brakes during Saturday’s session but I feel like we’ve made some progress here and a podium’s not too far away.”

Luke said: “I hit the wall really hard in the first race at two hundred and five kilometers an hour which shook me up quite a bit. I even winded myself on the steering wheel and if it hadn’t been for my HANS device I think it could have been a really nasty shunt. The guys from SEAT Sport UK did a fantastic job and worked so hard to get the car going for the second race in perfect order even down to the last sticker – it was pretty amazing.

“I’ve struggled all weekend here but I think I’ve also found a bit of time and I’m really happy with the final race to have been able to keep the Vauxhalls behind me. It was a bit of a hairy moment when Rob Collard tapped me coming out of the hairpin as it was such a dangerous place and I felt like I was going to spin around. I managed to hold on to the car but if I’d lost it I would have hit the entry corner of the pit wall and it could have been very nasty. Overall it’s not been a bad weekend and I’m really looking forward to going to Mondello.