JASON PLATO I WAS READY TO QUIT, BUT I’VE BOUNCED BACK

For two-and-a-half decades, Jason Plato has been right in the thick of the British Touring Car Championship, dividing opinion and mopping up the race wins.

The Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra driver, who has been through some tough seasons recently, put himself back in the spotlight with a victory in the final round of the 2019 competition at Brands Hatch and he is fully fired up for the 2020 campaign.

He has made a decent living by racing in the BTCC and fronting Channel 5’s Fifth Gear road car programme, which has boosted his profile beyond that of any other driver on the grid. During the pitlane walkabouts at each event, his is still always the longest queue.

While he waits for the new season to come around at Donington Park on August 1-2, he took time out of his schedule to answer Motorsport News readers’questions.As ever, he is searingly honest.

MN sets the scene:After success in Formula Renault, including winning the series’first European title in 1991, Jason Plato’s single-seater career was on an upward trajectory. He didn’t have a lot of cash, but he knew that Formula 3 was the next step. Finance determined that he would drive for Van Diemen in its brand new single-seater. It would only last half a season before the money ran out, and it was Van Diemen’s only attempt at the category.

Question: “What was the Van Diemen Formula 3 car really like to drive: [team boss] Ralph Firman has said it was the chassis he was most proud of?” Russell Scobbie Via email Jason Plato: “That car was a work of art. It was beautifully done. The tub was amazing. All of the front suspension installation was very trick for that time but, in my opinion, there was a fundamental flaw with the kinematics of the rear suspension. When the loads came up the rear pushrods and they came into the rocker arm, there was masses of stiction. If you look from the gearbox down the line of the car, the pushrods came up at, say, 30 degrees. How it then turned that 30-degree moment of thrust through to a longitudinal mechanism wasn’t great. It was all a bit wrong.

“You would be able to set the thing up on the flat patch – bear in mind set-up is critical in those types of car – and you could twist the back of the car and the corner weights would be all skewwhiff.

“There were bits where the car was great – the front end was amazing – but the rear was just a bit unpredictable. Being a freshman in Formula 3, it was just very difficult to drive and be consistent with.”