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Plato targets 100th BTCC win

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Plato targets 100th BTCC win

Jason Plato is aiming for his 100th British Touring Car Championship win this season, and he’s confident he’ll achieve that remarkable landmark in the rapidly developing Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.

The multiple champion and best selling author is the BTCC’s most successful driver, with 98 career victories in 22 seasons. After three unhappy seasons with Subaru, Plato got his mojo back in 2019 when he joined the ambitious Warwickshire-based PMR squad – and using his unrivalled testing talents he was able to help the team develop the new Astra from a mid-field racer to score a convincing victory in the final race of the year at Brands Hatch.

With success weight penalties and randomly selected grids, success in the BTCC is very tricky to predict – but with a good car and unparalleled tactical racing brain, Plato will surely be one of the favourites for title success in 2020.

“It has been a while since I was this excited for the start of the season. I genuinely love my team at PMR; they work unbelievably hard to provide me with the very best car, but also have a lot of fun doing it; it’s a great place to be,” says Jason.

“Adam [Weaver, PMR Team Principal] and Martin [Broadhurst, Team Manager and Technical Director] have put a very special group of people together that are focused on winning the championship, whilst sensibly making sure they are also building a stable future in the sport. This all helped me get my mojo back in 2019, and I want to reward them all with plenty more race wins. They will be the team I hit one hundred wins with, I have no doubt!”

This year Plato will be joined by Mat Jackson, who was a frontrunner in the SEAT Cupra Championship when Jason drove for SEAT Sport UK – so they go back a long way and know each other well. Jackson has replaced Rob Collard.

“I am sorry to see Rob leave, as last year was fun, but at the same time I’m very happy about working with Mat again, and really look forward to seeing what we can achieve by working together,” added Jason.

Weaver would love to be the team principal that gives Plato his 100th BTCC win, and is full of praise for not only his star driver, but his team’s new driver-line up.

“There are very few people out there who truly know how hard this BTCC game is,” says Adam. “It takes a tremendous amount of effort to do the job well; it’s way past stressful, consistently makes me question my decision making and breaks me on a regular basis. However, this driver line up alone makes it all worthwhile. It’s obvious that this is statistically our best pairing to date, and with the engineering team making the car better each year, we certainly intend to be challenging for a championship win this year.”

The driver pairing will make their debut at the upcoming public test day at Silverstone on 17 March.

Jason Plato wears a Stilo GT Zero helmet, supplied by Nicky Grist Motorsports.

Jason Plato, British Touring Car Championship, Vauxhall Astra, BTCC