Jason Plato will head SEAT Sport UK’s attack at Knockhill tomorrow after qualifying his Toldeo Cupra in 7th position for Round 22 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship ahead of Luke Hines in 10th and James Pickford in 12th.

Jason had high hopes for qualifying after setting fastest time during the second free practice session of the day only to find that the Toldeo Cupra he took out during this afternoon’s session was a different handling car to the one he’d driven in the morning. Oversteering and bouncing through the corners he dropped over two tenths from his previous fastest time with 7th place being the best he could muster over the 30 minute session.

James Pickford had a big accident during second free practice session when his car refused to turn right coming through the Chicane and he careered straight on into the tyre barrier and rolled. The car ended up on its side and James climbed out of the passenger door uninjured. His team of SEAT Sport UK mechanics did a fantastic job to get his car back on to the track in time for qualifying.

Second free practice also caused drama for Luke as his engine failed. A new one was installed before qualifying and despite finding a good set-up, his Toldeo Cupra suffered differential problems throughout the session which saw him lose front end grip. Repeatedly losing two tenths on the last corner of the lap he finally set 10th fastest time.

Jason said: “The car just seemed to be different in qualifying this afternoon to how it was in free practice. I got a load of oversteer over the kerbs and the car was bouncing where it wasn’t this morning. Every time I went into Clark corner I lost the rear. We’ve made quite a lot of changes to the car throughout the day but it’s really confusing. Throughout second practice this morning we made lots of small changes, most were not so good and then we put a set of tyres on and found a quick time from nowhere. I had a feeling that things weren’t quite right but as I’d set a quick time I wasn’t too concerned. We did find a problem after second practice with a cracked rear beam but that doesn’t explain why the car was bouncing. For us a fifty four point two is the perfect lap, we can’t go any faster than that, so at the moment we’re a couple of tenths off and I honestly don’t know why.”

James said: “The lads did a fantastic job to get my car ready in time for qualifying. If any group of people can do a job like that it’s those guys, if it had been any other crew I don’ think we would have made it in time. The most important thing was to get out there and set a time and we managed that with fifteen minutes left to run. The car wasn’t in the condition it should have been as it was a quick fix repair and I did the best job I could, but I wouldn’t have even been able to do that if it hadn’t been for those guys.”

Luke said: “We seem to be having a problem with the diff. It was fine during free practice although I didn’t manage to do that many laps as my engine went during the second free practice session. My qualifying set up was good but we just had a problem with the diff locking. The problem is there’s only one tight corner here, the last one, and you have to really hit the brakes hard and it was difficult to get the diff settings right and we were struggling with a lack of front end grip. It’s really close out there; it would just be nice to have a tenth or two more, which is what we were losing on the hairpin. I’m pretty sure it’s going to rain tomorrow which would be good as our car goes well in the wet and it’s mad around here in the rain!.”