BTCC: Modern Day driving standards; Was Jason Plato’s style fair?

The most recent British Touring Car Championship race caused uproar with fans after Jason Plato bumped and barged his way to the lead of the final race at Snetterton as well as using some ‘old-school’ tactics to keep Ash Sutton at bay.

Sutton and Plato were teammates at Subaru in 2017 and 2018, before Plato fell out with the team to re-join Vauxhall and the Power Maxed Racing team. Although nobody has specifically said that BMR (Subaru) and Plato had an unhappy divorce, it is heavily rumoured to be the case.

That said, Plato has said that he has ‘no problems’ with Sutton but his driving at Snetterton has definitely caused issues now between the former teammates if there were not any before.

Last Sunday, Subaru bumped his way into the lead by tapping the rear of Chris Smiley to lead a BTCC race for the first time this year but was compromised by being on the hard tyre compared to Sutton just behind on the faster soft tyre.

As it has since its inception to the BTCC in 2016, the Subaru Levorg is very slow in a straight line so Sutton was always going to find it hard to overtake Plato.

Multiple times, Plato forced Sutton off the track especially at Oggies. However, there was a moment of clean, hard, fair racing which was brilliant to see. The two of them went side by side through the first three turns and there was no pushing each other off, minimal contact and respect was given.

It was this sequence of amazing racing that saw Sutton finally overtake Plato to take the lead. Plato was having none of it though, and gave Sutton a big hit going into the next corner to take the lead back. If you don’t know what a ‘bump and run’ is, then that move was exactly that.

The battle ended into the high speed left hander at Brundle as Sutton, Plato and eventual race winner, Rory Butcher, went three wide. Sutton was turned around by Plato with the latter dropping a few positions as a consequence.

This was a racing incident, you are never going to get three cars through that corner side by side but some of the ‘racing’ before that was not on in my opinion.

Plato received a five-second time penalty for bumping Smiley on the opening lap and gaining an advantage from it. He was also awarded a further 10-second penalty following contact with Sutton.

Sutton called Plato ‘brainless’ and ‘stupid’ whilst Plato said Sutton ‘needs to grow a pair of balls’.

I like both Sutton and Plato as drivers, both are aggressive and willing to put everything on the line and both are great personalities for the BTCC.

Sutton did nothing wrong in Sunday’s final race but Plato certainly did and went over the limit. In my mid-season review I referenced how driving standards has improved massively in recent times and bumping your rival and taking an advantage from it has been penalised throughout 2019.

Personally, I am all for a bit of bumping and rubbing but I am not a fan of bumping the driver in front and overtaking him/her because of the bump. You can bump, but only to unsettle them, let them know you’re there etc. but not to make an overtake.

This is exactly what Plato did at Agostini and it was a big whack as well, he knocked Sutton sideways and without doubt had the intention to give Sutton a big bump to retake the lead because he knew if Sutton was ahead for the next 2-3 corners, Sutton had the superior car pace and would run away with the win. Plato knew he had to act immediately.

Plato also forced Sutton off the track a few times, not leaving any room for them to go side by side yet he sometimes let Sutton get alongside him, showing that he can race cleanly but he just didn’t choose to do it all the time.

Surprisingly, a lot of people thought what Plato did was fine and that is what the BTCC should be all about. I have to disagree.

The days of Plato, Matt Neal and before them the likes of, Steve Soper, John Cleland, Frank Sytner and Andy Rouse bumping and barging their way through and not respecting their rivals have gone.

Instead, we still get hard racing but in a much cleaner fashion. Look at the final race of 2018 for example. Josh Cook and Sutton served up arguably the race and battle of the year at Brands Hatch and everyone loved it, there was no need for the dirty tactics of bumping each other off or forcing your opponent onto the grass.

The BTCC needs to be showcasing that rather than the driving standards that the series had even just 10 years ago.

While a race and a battle like Plato and Sutton entertained us with may have been accepted in the 90s and noughties, times have moved on and you want to win a race cleanly and professionally, not due from hitting your rival’s back bumper and moving them out of the way.

Imagine if the whole field drove like Plato. It might be entertaining to start with but it would just get silly. The BTCC is not bumper cars or whacky races, it’s touring cars which has close competition, hard racing but all done cleanly.

If bumping your rival and forcing them off the track was allowed, just imagine the uproar if someone did get hurt from an incident. What Plato did was mainly at slow to medium speed but you simply cannot let him get away with it because it just sets a precedent of drivers bumping their rival whenever they want.

Thruxton is next up and what if Plato drove like that through Church for example or some of the other high speed turns. It could end badly.

Some nudging, rubbing and tapping is all good and part of a touring car driver’s racecraft in my opinion but you still have to have respect and you still have to leave some room to the side of you if a car is alongside and you cannot barge your way past another driver.