Homecoming Heroes Plato and Tordoff Ready For Croft

JASON Plato and Sam Tordoff say they are aiming to put on a show for home fans during the British Touring Car Championship rounds at Croft in North Yorkshire this weekend.

Former champion Plato, and his impressive rookie team-mate Sam Tordoff, head to the fifth meeting of the season and it will give Newcastle-born Plato a chance to perform in front of his home crowd.

It will be an important weekend for Plato’s team-mate Tordoff too, because he will be racing at his local circuit as well. It will be the first time he has handled a BTCC car in front of friends and family.

Plato, who has won four races this season, explained: “This is as close as it gets to racing at home for me, and that is a special feeling. What is also special is the track itself; Croft has a little bit of everything – there are really technical bits and there are some very fast sweeps out the back that require a huge amount of bravery.”

As well as the challenging nature of the circuit, Plato says that improvements made to his MG over the recent race weekends will reap rewards on the 2.25-mile layout.

“We showed at the last rounds at Oulton Park that the tweaks we have made to the chassis are paying off,” said Plato. “We had a great handling car on a very demanding circuit and those are the strengths we are going to need at Croft as well. We need to keep the momentum going that we have built up.”

For Tordoff, Croft will be another step into the unknown as he has yet to race a British Touring Car Championship machine there, but the Leeds ace has taken all the challenges in his stride so far. He took a career-best second place last time out at Oulton Park and has reset his targets for the remaining 18 races this year.

The 24-year-old, a member of the KX Akademy scheme to promote young talent, said: “I don’t think that wins are out of the question given how we performed at Oulton Park. What is great is that we have got on top of how to use the Dunlop tyres and get the most from them, which will be vital at Croft.

“We are confident enough to think that both Jason and I can fend off the threats from any team at Croft, and that means you go into the meeting with your sights set high.”

And Tordoff says that his target for this weekend’s meeting will be to try and improve on his incredible fifth in the points’ table. “Although it is my first year at this level, I am not asking for any special treatment,” he said. “I am out there to win as much as the next man, I have a great platform in the MG KX Momentum MG and I plan to use it as best as I can.”

Team principal Ian Harrison says he wants the MG KX Momentum squad to continue its race-winning form from Oulton Park at Croft, and he said that his hopes were high.

“We were fast at Croft last season so that is a positive thing, and we have a great car for both drivers. We got our first one-two of the season last time out at Oulton Park and we would love to do that again this weekend.

“The weather forecast for Sunday is changeable so that might make it tough for us, but that will be the same for everyone,” added Harrison. “We need to push on and make sure both drivers keep landing solid finishes.”

Photo by Aaron Lutpon.