Motor racing: Plato masters difficult circuit

JASON PLATO regained the lead of the British Touring Car Championship with a double win and a maximum points score at the tight, tricky Knockhill circuit in Scotland yesterday.

"It's been a mega weekend," said the Englishman, whose title rival, Yvan Muller, only finished one of the two races. "I knew it was coming," continued Plato, who feels that he and his engineer have made significant progress in finding a set-up for his Vauxhall Astra Coupe. Another successful weekend for the dominant Vauxhall squad secured the manufacturers' championship just one race beyond the season's mid-point.

Plato won the longer feature race by a comfortable margin, leading from pole position and then taking advantage as his major rivals hit problems.

James Thompson, in the Egg Vauxhall, was second for much of the race, but lost ground with a slow pit stop and then had to manhandle the car home third when the power steering failed. Muller had earlier retired after it suffered the same problem. Phil Bennett inherited second in his Egg Astra and Steve Soper brought in his Peugeot in fourth.

Plato had earlier won the sprint race, despite fluffing his start from pole. Plato's pace advantage over his French title rival this weekend had given him real confidence. "It was just a case of forcing him into making a little mistake, which he did." Muller had slid on the exit to the chicane and Plato passed on the way into the following corner.

Muller had to defend second place from Thompson, but a race-long brake problem hindered Thompson's progress and he eventually settled for third. Closing in over the final laps was the impressive fourth- placed series debutant Thomas Erdos.

Simon Graves won the BTC Production class in the sprint, hunting down another series debutant, the Scot Gordon Shedden, who won the feature race.

BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP Round 13 (Sprint race, 20 laps): 1 S Graves (GB), Honda 19min 30.059sec; 2 J Plato (GB), Vauxhall +1.208sec; 3 G Shedden (GB), Ford +1.267; 4 Y Muller (FR), Vauxhall +1.762, 5 S Harrison (GB), Peugeot +5.366; 6 J Kaye (GB), Honda +5.629; 7 J Thompson (GB), Vauxhall +7.878; 8 T Erdos (BRA), Lexus at 9.599; 9 P Bennett (GB), Vauxhall +14.641; 10 R Collard (GB), Renault at 23.934.

Round 14 (45 laps): 1 Plato 48min 06.648sec; 2 Bennett +6.558sec; 3 J Thompson (Vauxhall) at 30.343sec; 4 S Soper (Peugeot) +41.491; 5 Shedden +1 lap; 6 Kaye +1; 7 Harrison +1; 8 Collard +1; 9 J Edwards Jnr (GB) Honda +1; 10 R Moen (Nor) Peugeot +1. Championship standings Touring class drivers: 1 Plato 179pts; 2 Muller 176; 3 Thompson 163; 4 Bennett 106; 5 Soper 61; 6 D Eaves 48. Production class drivers: 1 Kaye 134; 2 Harrison 131; 3 Moen 111; 4 M Jackson 85; 5 G Pyper 66; 6 G Howell 56. Touring class manufacturers: 1 Vauxhall 484pts (champions); 2 Peugeot 143.

Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.