Timothy Jason Plato is a British racing driver currently competing in the
British Touring Car Championship for Team BMR. He has twice been BTCC
Champion, in 2001 for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet. He has
finished in the top 3 in the Championship 12 times and holds the
record for the most overall race wins in the BTCC. He was a presenter on the
motoring television series Fifth Gear from 2004 through 2014.
Career history After success in karting, Plato raced in
Formula Three and Formula Renault. In 1996 he entered the Renault Spider
championship, making a dominant title win.
= BTCC= In 1997 he gained the second drive in
the Williams-Renault BTCC team, after Frank Williams organised a test between
him, Gianni Morbidelli and Jean-Christophe Boullion with the
fastest getting the contract offer. Plato took pole for his first three
races, and ultimately won 2 races as a rookie, taking 3rd in the championship
which was won by his team-mate Alain Menu. He was 5th in the series in each
of the next two years. Plato joined Vauxhall in 2000, again
taking 5th place in the championship. For 2001 the series had a new set of
reduced-cost rules, fewer big-name drivers as a result, and Vauxhall had by
far the best car. In a contentious and hard-fought season, Plato won the
championship after team-mate Yvan Muller's car caught fire at the last
round. = Break from BTCC=
With an ambition to get into NASCAR racing, Plato moved to the British ASCAR
stock car scene in 2002, finishing 3rd in the championship.
In 2003 he was a driver coach for SEAT, returning to the BTCC with the Spanish
team in 2004. = BTCC return=
He was employed 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. However the newly formed SEAT team and car needed developing if it were to
become a race winner. He was 10th in the championship that year with just the
single win. more than anyone else. The driver finishing 10th in the first of
the meeting's 3 races had pole for race 2, and the winner of race 2 had pole for
race 3. As a result of this, the championship rules were changed to
reversing the top 10 of the race 3 grid, putting an end to this tactic, and the
pace of Matt Neal's Team Dynamics Honda and Yvan Muller's Vauxhall left Plato
unable to challenge for a second title in 2005. He finished 4th in the 2005
championship with only three wins to his credit during the season, with the team
now run by Northern South. For 2006, Plato continued in the British
Touring Car Championship as lead driver for SEAT and their new León touring car.
He was the only driver in the three-driver team to compete in all 10
meetings – his team-mates, double BTCC champion James Thompson and ex-DTM
driver Darren Turner, shared the team's second Leon. After the first 3 meetings
he was a point behind Thompson and 3rd in the championship, but had two
retirements in the races at Thruxton. After winning race 1 at Croft, race 2
was his 200th start, and he nearly won, but Matt Neal passed him with 2 laps to
go. He won 2 out of the 3 races at Brands Hatch to keep his faint hopes of
winning the BTCC in 2006 alive, but a poor qualifying run at Silverstone
finally ended his hopes. He beat Colin Turkington to 2nd in the championship,
meaning that he had then finished in each of the top 5 championship
positions. Winning the first two races of 2007 set
the tone for a title battle with Fabrizio Giovanardi's Vauxhall.
Giovanardi took the series lead at Knockhill but Plato retook it at
Donington Park after fighting from 9th on the grid to come 5th in race 1 and
then win race 2. He started race 3 from 9th but fought through to take the lead
from Mike Jordan, with some uncertainty over whether he had passed under a
yellow flag. To ensure that he was not penalised he allowed Jordan to repass
him, before retaking the lead a lap later. The battle went to the final
round, with Giovanardi winning by 3 points to take the championship, with
Plato declaring that "Fabrizio beat us the right way. He is a very worthy
champion and there were no shenanigans between me and him."
In 2008 the team switched to a diesel-powered León. The first win for a
diesel car in the BTCC came in round 7 at Donington Park. Two wins at
Snetterton helped him to close the gap on Giovanardi, but a mechanical failure
in race 3 was a precursor to a similar problem in race 2 at Oulton Park, after
winning race 1. These incidents typified a season in which performance was not
matched by reliability, despite the same cars being largely reliable in the World
Touring Car Championship. Plato went into the final rounds at Brands Hatch
still mathematically in with a chance of the title, but admitted that the large
points difference between his and Giovanardi's made this unrealistic. Both
he and Giovanardi had poor final rounds at Brands, allowing Mat Jackson to
leapfrog Plato for 2nd overall in his privateer BMW.
Plato's plans for 2009 had been affected by SEAT's shock announcement to pull
their factory team out of the BTCC at the end of the 2008 season. It was
speculated that Plato was planning to take a sabbatical from racing to focus
on his TV work. However, after holding talks over the off-season with West
Surrey Racing and Tempus Sport, Plato decided to return to the BTCC in a
privately entered RML Group Chevrolet Lacetti. After the first meeting, the
team secured sponsorship from Silverline power tools and Auto Windscreens for the
rest of the season, and raced under the Racing Silverline banner. At the final
round of the season at Brands Hatch, Plato became only the second driver
after Dan Eaves at Thruxton in 2005 to win all three races, the first of which
he won by a then closest-ever BTCC winning margin of 0.015 seconds, ahead
of Tom Chilton. He finished 2nd in the 2009 championship, 5 points behind
champion Colin Turkington. For 2010 RML became an official
Chevrolet manufacturer team, racing the Cruze model that races in the World
Touring Car Championship, with Plato as lead driver. Plato was a championship
challenger immediately, with a double victory at Snetterton returning him to
the championship lead. He dominated the 2nd half of the season and claimed the
2010 MSA Dunlop British Touring Car Championship by winning round 29 at
Brands Hatch on 10 October 2010. His win was also his 60th, equalling Andy
Rouse's BTCC record. Plato remained with the same team in
2011 and won the first round of the season at Brands Hatch, setting a new
BTCC record of 61 victories. He came 3rd in the Championship. In 2012 and 2013 he
raced for the Triple Eight Race Engineering team in their MG KX Momentum
Racing MG6 and came 3rd in the Championship in both years. In 2014 with
a similar but differently-sponsored car under the same team he came 2nd in the
Championship. On 17 February 2015, it was announced
that Plato would be driving alongside Turkington, Aron Smith and Warren Scott
for Team BMR during the 2015 BTCC season.
= Other racing= Plato competed in the Bathurst 1000 and
Sandown 500 numerous times, but without any great success. His last attempt at
Bathurst was with the Holden Racing Team and was driving with the late Peter
Brock. Plato and Brock's race ended with Plato being involved in a crash which
resulted in John Cleland's car rolling on to its roof.
During his 2005 BTCC campaign, he competed in four rounds of the World
Touring Car Championship for SEAT Sport. He achieved a second place finish in
race 2 of his home round FIA WTCC Race of UK at Silverstone. He also won a race
and finished second overall in the 2005 European Touring Car Cup.
= Television career= Plato is a co-presenter for the Channel
5 British TV series Fifth Gear co-starring with Tiff Needell and Vicki
Butler-Henderson. He previously co-presented Channel 4's motoring
program 'Driven' alongside Mike Brewer and Penny Mallory.
Plato was injured in a Caparo T1 supercar in October 2007 during filming
for Fifth Gear at Bruntingthorpe proving ground. The car caught fire at an
estimated 250 kilometres per hour and Plato described his injuries as follows:
“The back of my neck is burnt and so are my face and hands. I obviously couldn’t
take my hands off the steering wheel whilst braking and my right hand is more
badly burnt than my left." He was taken from the scene by former
BTCC driver Phil Bennett and after treatment at three hospitals, including
Stoke Mandeville Hospital's specialist burns unit, Plato was able to compete in
the following weekend's final race in the 2007 BTCC calendar. This incident
was also mentioned on Top Gear, where Jeremy Clarkson called him a 'Baked
Potato' after mispronouncing his name. Plato presented the popular Sky One
television program Mission Implausible where he and Tania Zaetta competed to
perform three stunts over the course of each episode.
= Personal life= Plato was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire,
England, and was educated at the King's School, Tynemouth. He is married to
Sophie and they have two daughters. A qualified pilot, he owned a Piper Malibu
Mirage to commute from his former home in Monaco. Plato is a brand ambassador
of Agusta Westland Helicopters, Tesco Momentum 99 Fuel, Jigsaw24 and AMX Home
Automation Systems. He runs a marketing agency, Brand Pilot Ltd.
Racing record = Complete British Touring Car
Championship results= (key) Races in bold indicate pole
position Races in italics indicate fastest lap * signifies that driver lead
race for at least one lap ‡ Retired before 2nd start of race
= Complete World Touring Car Championship results=
(key) = Complete V8 Supercar results=
(key) References
External links Media related to Jason Plato at
Wikimedia Commons JasonPlato.com
Official Profile at BTCC.net Corporate SEAT Sport site
Sky One website for Mission Implausible Complete BTCC results