The 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship reaches its halfway point at Oulton Park on Sunday 24 June, and having led the 30 round series since the very first race Jason Plato will be aiming to extend his advantage at the top of the Drivers’ table. His SEAT Sport UK team-mate Darren Turner is full of confidence after scoring his first BTCC race win last time out at Croft. He has only raced single-seaters at Oulton Park and the last time was in 1998 – yet Darren is sure it won’t take him long to reacquaint himself with the 2.26 mile Cheshire circuit, as he looks for victory number two in his SEAT Leon.

Jason has an excellent record at Oulton, having qualified on pole in 2005 and 2006 and given SEAT all-but one of its five podium finishes there – including both its two race wins. Qualifying first this time will be more difficult because, as Championship leader, Jason will once again start a race weekend carrying the maximum 45kgs of success ballast.

Jason is about to start his 228th BTCC race, 10 years after he made his BTCC debut, and he’s racing better than ever with an average score of 10.58 points per race so far this season. Darren, in his first full BTCC season and with 201 BTCC races less, has averaged 5.92 points per race – yet he is making rapid progress. Darren out-scored Jason at the last race meeting and scored more points at Croft than he’d done at Rockingham and Thruxton put together. Whilst Jason leads the series, Darren has jumped to 5th in the Drivers’ table – just 10 points behind 3rd spot.

The team hopes that both drivers will extend their current points tally and improve those statistics, particularly as the Oulton Park Island Circuit should suit the SEAT Leon, as the car’s superb chassis is ideal for the fast and flowing rollercoaster twists and undulations. And this will also be important in the BTCC Manufacturers’ standings – as a good performance could see reigning champions SEAT enter the second half of the season leading that category as well.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Nick Clipson, SEAT Sport Race Engineer: “Oulton Park is a very challenging circuit with a real mixture of high and low speed corners. From the start, after rounding Old Hall, the track plunges downhill to the very tricky Cascades, an adverse camber fourth gear corner, which leads up to Island Hairpin. This is a common overtaking point, where set-up for stability under heavy braking is particularly important, so that you can attack and make up places – if you’re not already leading! Traction, as always, is very important out of the hairpin for the drag along to the second gear Knickerbrook chicane, where tyres are often found wandering across the track having been hit by other competitors. A fast exit from the chicane is critical to a good lap time, as it’s then a long drag up the hill through the challenging fourth gear double apex Druids and on to Lodge. The gradient changes around the circuit make gear ratio selection even more important than normal, to ensure that the engine is kept working within the optimum power band. Once through Lodge, it’s back over the start/finish line to start another lap. SEAT has traditionally been successful at Oulton Park with Jason taking pole and winning for the last two years’ running, and so we return optimistic of more good results.”

DRIVER QUOTES

Jason Plato: “Oulton Park will really suit our car. In fast and longer corners the Leon is superb and I don’t think the maximum weight handicap will hurt us as much there as it did last time out at Croft. There are two uphill sections though, one out of Island Hairpin and one out of the Knickerbrook chicane, which won’t suit our car; but you can’t have everything and overall we’ll be okay. We have to go to Oulton Park and really concentrate to get our set-up right and score a lot of points. It’s a critical time of the season and I believe we’ll be very strong at Oulton Park, I really do.”

Darren Turner: “I haven’t race at Oulton Park since 1998, but that was the same with Croft last time out and it only took me four or five laps to get back into it. I go to Oulton on the back of scoring my first BTCC win, and now I’ve got that out of the way I feel a lot more relaxed now. Everyone was expecting me to win and the pressure was beginning to build, but as soon as I crossed that finish line in front the pressure lifted. I’ve also got my standing starts nailed, so there is no reason why I shouldn’t be able to score BTCC victory number two!”

OULTON PARK FACT FILE

BTCC race day at Oulton Park last year finished a lot better than it started for SEAT Sport UK. In the first race, pole-sitter and race leader Jason Plato received a 30 second stop and go penalty after a mechanic was judged to be still changing the car’s wheels when the three minute board came up, while team-mate James Thompson didn’t get out of the pit lane in time and started the first of three races from the back of the grid. In the third and final race of the day, Jason and James finished 1st and 2nd.

Jason Plato started all three BTCC races from pole position at Oulton Park in 2005 and went on to score the team’s first race win of the season.

Jason Plato had his first big racing accident at Oulton Park in 1990, when he rolled a Formula Renault end-over-end at the ultra-fast Island Corner.

On race day morning, an in-car lap of the circuit will be able to view on www.telegraph.co.uk/btcc

In his commentary of the 1997 BTCC race, Murray Walker renamed Lodge Corner ‘Plato’s Bend’ after Jason overtook almost every car there during the race. Jason had been caught behind a start line accident, and from last place he eventually finished 5th – overtaking two or more cars at Lodge Corner on each lap.