Jason Plato continues to lead the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship after a bruising race meeting at Snetterton in Norfolk. Having been hit off the track at the first corner of the opening race, Jason recovered from 17th to finish 8th in Race 1, scored a podium in Race 2 and challenged for the lead in Race 3 before finishing 4th. His SEAT Leon showed the battle scars of a hard-fought day, but with nine rounds of the 30 race series remaining, Jason holds a 14 point lead in the Drivers’ standings.

It was an equally frustrating day for Darren Turner, who ran as high as 2nd and scored three top 10 results, but ended the day with a battered Leon and the feeling that more could have been achieved. Their combined points tally over the weekend has nevertheless enabled SEAT Sport UK to maintain its lead in the BTCC Teams’ Championship and keeps SEAT’s strong challenge alive in the Manufacturers’ table.

ROUND 19

Jason made a fantastic start from the fourth row of the grid to power between Darren and Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra), who started on row three. As he turned into the first corner, Riches, in 6th place, Matt Neal (Honda Civic) drove into the side of him, pushing the SEAT Leon off onto the grass. Jason rejoined the track in 17th and over the 18 lap race came back to finish 8th.

Darren had a clutch problem on the start line, and was initially embroiled in a close race for 6th place with Mat Jackson, before the BMW driver pulled away. On lap six Giovanardi overtook Darren exiting The Esses, and as the SEAT driver lost momentum, Mike Jordan (Honda Integra) also went passed. Thereafter, Darren was in a close battle with Jordan, eventually getting through when Jordan made a mistake at the end of lap 14. As Jason closed, Darren, Jordan and Jason took to chequered flag nose to tail in 6th, 7th and 8th places.

Colin Turkington won the race, but was later excluded when his BMW was found to be underweight.

ROUND 20

Both SEAT Sport UK drivers made a good start from where they finished the previous race, but Fiona Leggate (MG ZS) and Chris Stockton (Lexus IS200) collided on the run down to Riches and the Safety Car was deployed. At the restart on lap six, the 18 lap race had been extended to 21 and Jason followed Darren before overtaking him on lap seven to move up to 5th. Jason, Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Vectra) and Jackson were then side-by-side coming down the long Rivett Straight, at the end of which Chilton spun in front of Jason, forcing the Leon driver onto the grass and dropping him to 7th.

Jason did his best lap of the race on lap 14 as he moved back up to 5th and was closing on Neal and 3rd-placed Darren when the Safety Car came out again; this time for Erkut Kizilirmak (Astra Sport Hatch) to be rescued from the field adjacent to Sear Corner. During this period, Gordon Shedden (Honda Civic) retired from 2nd place with gearbox problems and only three racing laps remained when the race resumed. In a straight race for the line, Giovanardi won, while Neal stole 2nd on the final lap, Jason claimed a podium finish in 3rd, one place ahead of Darren.

ROUND 21

With the top six from the previous race randomly selected to start the third and final race at Snetterton in reverse order, Darren and Jason lined up together on the second row, with the BMWs of Tom Onslow-Cole and Jackson ahead of them.

Jason made a great start to overtake Darren on the race to Riches, and the two SEAT Leons slotted in behind the two BMWs. Jason made a move on Jackson at Sear Corner on lap three and they were side-by-side down the Revett Straight; but it was a fantastic move at the Bomb Hole on lap seven which finally saw Jason go through. He then challenged Onslow-Cole for the lead, but as Jason had been pushing hard, his front tyres began to go off and the last three laps were a struggle.

It all came to a head at The Esses on lap 16, when Jason was sandwiched between Jackson and Giovanardi. Jason drop from 2nd to 4th, Jackson ran a long way out onto grass and drop from 3rd to 7th, Giovanardi move from 4th to 3rd and Neal drove through them all unscathed to come from 5th to 2nd. And that is the order in which they finished, behind race winner Onslow-Cole.

Darren dropped to 9th by the end of the race, and was left wondering if his SEAT Leon was off-song, as he’d been unable to defend his position and had been “a sitting duck” as rivals overtook at will.

DRIVER QUOTES

Jason Plato (8th/3rd/4th): “It’s been very frustrating, because what happened in the first race completely screwed up our weekend. Touring car racing is hard and there is an acceptable level of door-to-door stuff which spectators love to see and which I give as good as I get, and that’s fair enough. But we’ve taken a lot of hard hits today. We’ve got a lot of damage on the car – not through crashing, but by being driven in to. But we came back from seventeenth in race one to finish on the podium in race two and then challenge for the lead in race three, so you have to think to yourself what we might have achieved had Matt Neal not whacked me off the road on the opening corner. I thought I could win the last race, but I needed to be clear of Mat Jackson on the last three laps to attack Tom Onslow-Cole and it didn’t quite work out like that. As for what happened between Jackson, Giovanardi and myself I really don’t know, because by then my wing mirrors had been swiped off, the car wasn’t straight and I’d just been whacked again! It’s been a bit mad today, but I’m still leading the Championship and we live to fight another day.”

Darren Turner (6th/4th/9th): “We had a problem with the clutch cylinder seal which bogged me down at the start of the first race, but the rest of the race was pretty much okay. I was happy with my start in the second race and had some good battles which got me up to second at one stage. I’ve never had a more frustrating race than the third and final one here at Snetterton. We started third on the grid, slotted in to fourth after a no-so good start and was then a sitting duck to the rest of the field down the long Revett Straight. I think I must have had a problem with the car, because people were getting a tow off me, overtake and pulled away before we reached the braking area; I know straight line speed isn’t our strongest point, but it hasn’t been as bad as that all weekend. There isn’t a lot you can do it that situation; it was just a frustrating end to what had been quite a positive race weekend.”

Rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the BTCC takes place at Brands Hatch in Kent on August 18-19.