[BTCC] Round 4 - Thruxton, 18th May 2008

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Aunt Sally

What digression did they use when Plato's SEAT clearly did not pass the height check on the front of the car after race three!

Exactly the same as Turkington in race 2. they both had a puncture.

Strange how Plato complained about Turkington getting off his height check failure because he had a puncture but didn't whine when they let him off for exactly the same thing!

So its not the penalties that are inconsistent. Its Platos whining thats inconsistent.

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

Its Platos whining thats inconsistent.

Your statement is incorrect. There's perfect consistancy. Anything he whines about if he won on would work out in his favour

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Hazard

Your statement is incorrect. There's perfect consistancy. Anything he whines about if he won on would work out in his favour

[redshoes]

SEAT PR must be loving this. Their lead drivers spouts off about how unfairly he is being treated and the team are forced to put out a press release apologising. BTW, I'm not making this up, this is a genuine SEAT PR release

SEAT Sport UK puts the record straight
Following reports in the media regarding SEAT Sport UK’s exclusion from Round 10 of the 2008 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton (Sunday 18th May), the team would like to make clear that it understands and fully accepts the decision of the race officials.

Some verbal comments were made by Jason Plato immediately after Round 10, when the full detail of events weren’t entirely clear to him at the time.

SEAT Sport UK wishes to unreservedly withdraw those remarks. We acknowledge that the regulations were correctly applied, that the appropriate penalty was imposed and apologise for any embarrassment to the Championship and its officials, or for any confusion, that those initial comments may have caused.

SEAT Sport UK will not make any further comment on this subject and look forward to continuing to work closely with the BTCC to develop the growing popularity of Britain’s premier motorsport series

[trebor901]

its funny how Plato himself doesnt appologise the stupid prat. I hate that bloke so much its stupid.

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by trebor901

its funny how Plato himself doesnt appologise the stupid prat. I hate that bloke so much its stupid.

It shows...

[touring fan01]

Well at least they have apologised for his whining. He didnt whine last year when he was leading the championship but this year looks like hes back to whining again cause hes under pressure.

[trebor901]

he cant take it that his team mate will probably end up beating him this year and Plato only has this and next season left on his SEAT contract

[Rockmunky]

Ah well, better than Matt "I'll punt everyone in my way" Neal!

[trebor901]

oh yeah he's so much better that Matt managed to win twice the number of championships Jason "Punt Off" Prato will.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Rockmunky

Ah well, better than Matt "I'll punt everyone in my way" Neal!

Why the need to criticise Neal in a thread about the completed Thruxton racing?

The comments made here about Plato, while at times possibly ill-mannered, have come about through an interview Plato gave himself and his team's official response. Can you explain who Neal 'punted' during the entire Thruxton weekend?

[snowen250]

Show me a (modern age) BTCC driver who doesnt punt people a bit and il show u some rocking horse droppings.
Deal with it.
Anyhow......Great racing at Thruxton, looking forward to Croft!

[awrb]

I don't think Neal's particularly bad. He's had a fair number of incidents, but I don't think he punts everyone in his way.

As for Plato, I think he's an unfair driver who'll hit anyone who comes too close, yet whinge if anyone so much as comes near him, or even they don't really. However, 'stupid prat' is just a needless verbal attack (does it count as verbal over the internet?).

Totally agree with you Trebor, Turner is generally looking stronger than Plato in the races, but luck seems to have robbed him of some good opportunities to beat his team-mate.

[stedevil]

Actually, I would say Plato has had more misfortune than Turner this year. Twice he has found himself at the very back of the field instead of the very front basically due to team errors giving him a penalty. That said, Turner is a really good driver and well deserving of his points. And regarding Neal, I think he started to behave a lot better already last year and getting progressively more nice behaved ever since.

[redshoes]

Having thought about this for a while I've actually changed my opinion a little on SEAT's press release. There's no quote from Plato and the way it reads sounds like it's SEAT apologising on Plato's behalf rather than Plato himself. At first I thought it was quite amusing the way SEAT felt they had to do this.

On second thoughts it is an unnecessarily 'politically correct' response. Is it any wonder that we bemoan the lack of real characters in the sport. Take someone like John Cleland - never afraid to speak his mind even if top level officialdom was the target. Comments such as "tell Gow to go raffle himself" are part of BTCC folklore. Neither he nor the team ever felt the need to issue a retraction. If he or the team had made a mistake and lost a race or put in a poor performance he was equally frank about admitting it.

These days drivers are too scared to admit any problems and most post-race interviews have been reduced to a string of sponsor name-checks and corporate double-speak. Whilst I don't agree with Plato rant it saddens me that the team felt they had to take this action.