Jason Plato

Jason Plato is a British auto racing driver, born in 1968 in Oxford. After success in karting he won the British and European Formula 3 championships in 1991, before racing in Formula 3 and Formula Renault. In 1996 he entered the Renault Spider championship, and a dominant title win saw him earn the second drive in the Williams-Renault BTCC team.

Related Topics:
Auto racing - British - European - Formula 3 - Renault - Williams - BTCC

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He made a sensational start in the Laguna, taking pole for his first 3 races, and ultimately winning 3 races as a rookie, taking 3rd in the championship won by team-mate Alain Menu. He was 5th in the series in each of the next 3 years, having joined Vauxhall in 2000. For 2001 the series had a new set of reduced-cost rules, less big-name drivers as a result, and Vauxhall had by far the best car. In a contentious and hard-fought season Jason narrowly beat team-mate Yvan Muller to win the title, but he was unpopular in the team, and moved to the ASCAR stock car scene in 2002, finishing 3rd in the championship.

Related Topics:
Alain Menu - Yvan Muller - ASCAR - Stock car

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He was employerd by SEAT to help with their driver development in 2003, and when they entered a BTCC team in 2004, he was the natural choice to lead the team. He was third in the championship that year, winning more races than anyone else, although the team used the reverse-grid regulations to their advantage. The driver finishing 10th in the first of the meeting's 3 races had pole (and a light car) for race 2, and the winner of race 2 had pole for race 3 (although with a now-heavier car), so Jason frequently dropped back to 10th in race one, often going on to win races 2 and 3. As a result of this, the championship rules were changed to reversing the top 10 of the race 3 grid, somewhat scuppering this tactic, and the pace of Matt Neal's Team Dynamics Honda and Yvan Muller's Vauxhall have left him unable to challenge for a second title.

Related Topics:
SEAT - Matt Neal - Team Dynamics - Honda - Yvan Muller - Vauxhall

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