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Plato: BTCC's engine parity rules unfair to Subaru

Team BMR Subaru driver Jason Plato has questioned the fairness of the BTCC’s equivalency formula after the most recent weekend of the championship at Knockhill.

Jason Plato, Subaru Team BMR

Jason Plato, Subaru Team BMR

PSP Images

Pole position for Jason Plato, Subaru Team BMR
Jason Plato, Subaru Team BMR
Jason Plato, Subaru Team BMR; Jack Goff, Team IHG Rewards Club; Colin Turkington, Subaru Team BMR
Winner Jason Plato, Subaru Team BMR
Jason Plato, Subaru Team BMR
Jason Plato, Subaru Team BMR

Plato took pole position by 0.021 seconds over the Speedworks Toyota Avensis of Tom Ingram, while the West Surrey Racing BMW of Sam Tordoff was just three-hundredths of a second behind while laden with 66kg of ballast.

The two-time champion was critical of the engine equality formula, which is managed by the championship organisers to balance out the performance different between the five different engine types on the grid.

Subaru and BMW are both understood to have had reductions in their permitted maximum turbo boost levels at Knockhill.

“There just isn’t any equivalency,” said Plato.

“We have a rear-wheel drive car at a rear-wheel drive friendly circuit. We’ve got two not bad drivers in me and Colin [Turkington], two not bad engineers, we have a £2.5 million programme here and no weight; and a BMW with 66kg of weight is setting the same time as us.

“I don’t think that’s what the rules are. The rules are not to equalise on lap time, it’s to equalise on engine performance, and the rules are clear but for some reason it’s not happening.”

Plato went on to win Race 1 by just over half a second ahead of West Surrey Racing’s Jack Goff, but while carrying 75kg of ballast in Race 2, he could only take third behind Matt Neal and Tordoff.

“I know if we had the right level of performance, we’d be half a second to six-tenths quicker than we are now, and that’s where we should be with no weight on," Plato said.

"We should be on pole by half a second, so it’s frustrating.

“Hopefully come the end of the year, this engine equality system or whatever it is will be looked at and it will be done correctly, as I don’t think it is at the moment.”

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes

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Edition

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