Plato wins Knockhill BTCC Race 1 13 | 08 | 2017
DOUBLE BTCC CHAMP Jason Plato claimed the 96th win of his career when he won today's opening race in the British Touring Car Championship triple-header at Knockhill. (Related: Plato bags 50th BTCC pole)
The 49-year-old from Oxford led home a Subaru 1-2, crossing the line just 0.216secs ahead of team-mate Ash Sutton. Former Knockhill race instructor Colin Turkington finished third, just ahead of his BMW team-mate Rob Collard.
Plato’s bid though to allow Sutton an extra point for leading a lap failed, as they dup carried out the manoeuvre at the wrong part of the start-finish straight.
As a result, Sutton wasn’t registered as actually leading the lap, though he was ahead when the two cars passed the chequered flag position at the start of the final lap. The two Subarus swapped positions again exiting the Hairpin to allow Plato to repeat his Race 1 win of 12 months ago at the circuit.
Scot Gordon Shedden, who started from ninth of the grid carrying the maximum 75kgs success ballast in his Honda, finished 11th, behind the Chevrolet of Inverness-based Dave Newsham.
The two other Scots, 30-year-old Rory Butcher (Ford) from Kirkcaldy, and Dalkeith 20-year-old Aiden Moffat (Mercedes), finished 25th and 26th respectively.
Turkington heads into this afternoon’s Race 2 leading the championship by five points from Collard, eight ahead of Sutton and nine ahead of Shedden. The 38-year-old from Auchterarder entered the weekend leading the title race by two points.
Jason Plato, Subaru: “That win was important. But not as important as what we found with the car in qualifying yesterday. It was something that we’ve thought about all year but didn’t really have the on-track data to back it up.
“But we’ve investigated it and it looks like we’ve had a diff issue for the first part of the season, and some of the ramps in the diff aren’t doing what they should be doing. So we did a complete diff change last night, and the car’s just totally different. It’s like being back with my old friend again.
“The great news is I’m going to be able to smile a lot more now, because we think we’ve found the gremlin.
“But it’s a shame we didn’t get that shift round for the extra point for Ash right. We got our timing a bit wrong.
“I should now have the advantage in Race 2. Ok, I will gain some weight, and I’ll be on the soft compound tyre while everyone else will be on he hard.
“I think the soft tyre was better in a couple of ket areas in that opening race. So now we try and score some more points.”
Ash Sutton, Subaru: “Jason thoroughly deserved the win. We tried to give me the extra point for leading a lap, but we git it wrong. Simple as that. I wasn’t leading as the cars crossed the timing beam, which is at a different place than the chequered flag.
“It’s pity, because every point matters in a championship, and especially one as close as this.
“But it’s good for Jason. He’s obviously had his difficulties with the car this season. My side of the garage has been absolutely fine, but it’s actually nice to come across the line today with a Subaru 1-2.
“To lock-out the front row in qualifying was a great achievement for the team and for Jason. It was phenomenal.
“The soft tyre was an advantage, but the ballast evened things out in terms of overall performance.”
Colin Turkington, BMW: "We were a bit quicker than the Subarus in the opening part of the race, because our tyres came on really fast. I saw that I had the fastest lap, so there was that phase when I just started to catch the two cars ahead of me.
“But mid-part of the race they were just taking a couple of tenths out of me every lap, and I was already driving to the limit of my BMW 1 Series. The goal this weekend was to come and score good points, and that’s what we’ve done in race 1.
“We’ve a little bit of weight out now for the second race — not much, just 9kg — but it’ll make a difference. We’re at the sharp end, so we always have a chance.”
Related: 'Overweight" BTCC champ Gordon Shedden eyes points haul
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Jim McGill