SEAT Sport UK strengthened its challenge in the race for the 2005 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship Manufacturers’ trophy by maintaining its 100% race finishing record at the second meeting of the season at Thruxton today. Not only have all three drivers finished all six races, but now Jason Plato and Luke Hines have both led a race, Jason has given the team its first podium finish of the season and James Pickford narrowly missed a podium result by finishing 4th in only his fifth BTCC race of his career.

In a dramatic three races at the notoriously fast Hampshire circuit, Jason took his Toledo Cupra to 2nd in the day’s opening race and followed that with 5th in Round 5. Round 6 saw Jason battle for second place with Yvan Muller and overtake him when the Frenchman suddenly slowed soon after the start of the third lap, but when Jason discovered the Safety Car was on track he continuously waved at Muller and indicated for him to overtake and reclaim second position. Yvan refused to accept the sporting gesture, forcing Jason to remain in second place. After the Safety Car period had ended, Jason quickly overtook team-mate Luke for the lead and was pulling away from the field when a drive through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags saw him finish 5th.

James was the SEAT star of Round 5th when he powered his way to 4th place after starting from 7th on the grid and also recorded the fastest lap all the manufacturer-entered cars in the race. Sixth and 7th place finishes in Rounds 4 and 6 respectively rounded up a gutsy performance from the Macclesfield driver.

The highlight of Luke’s day came in the final race when a flying start saw him take the lead and hold it for five laps before Jason overtook and made it a SEAT one-two running order. Luke looked on course to finish 2nd when a tussle with Matt Neal towards the end of the race saw Luke’s Toledo Cupra pushed sideways. He lost a lot of time and finished 8th – for the third time in three races.

Jason said: “Overall it’s not been a bad weekend for us really. The team’s performed exceptionally well and we’ve had a little bit of success here and as it turns out we could have had a whole lot more. Eddie Hinckley, my Race Engineer, worked his magic and my car in the final race was the best it had been all day. I didn’t see the Safety Car board because I was so close to Yvan Muller’s tail and when he backed off going into Allards and I thought he had a misfire and was out of the race so I went past him. There was no yellow flags at all between Allards and the Complex and then when I actually saw some yellow flags up ahead I instantly slowed and put my indicators on and waved Yvan through. I waved him through for two laps and almost stopped twice and he wouldn’t come through. It’s just a cheap shot isn’t it and I think he jeopardized a higher placed finish by doing it. Yvan needs to wake up and smell the coffee at bit more.”

Luke said: “I was having an amazing drive in the final race and it was destroyed by Matt Neal. In my opinion he took me off and everyone who saw the TV footage thought the same thing. He got out of the car after the race and started blaming me, saying that he was going to rip my head off, which isn’t very sporting when he’s clearly to blame. Despite this I thought the weekend was good and it produced three very exciting races. We’ve found the pace this weekend and whilst there are a few more things we’ve go to work on I’m confident we’ll get there. I’m really positive going to Brands Hatch next because it’s my home circuit and I think we’re going to see some more close racing there.”

James said: “I made a good start in the final race and when Tom Chilton, Gavin Smith and Colin Turkington collided and I was able to make up a few places. But on the way out of the Complex, Turkington kept his foot down and cut across the grass and joined the racing line right in front of me. I had to brake hard to avoid hitting him and lost my momentum completely through the high speed bits of the circuit. All in all it’s been a cracking race weekend – the team has got all three cars to the finish of every race again, I’ve collected more points and so has SEAT. I’ve made a lot of progress since my BTCC debut at Donington and I’m really looking forward to Brands Hatch as hopefully I’ll be better there again.”