Credentials…
2005 4th
BTCC Drivers’ Championship
with SEAT Sport UK - with
3 race wins and 11 podiums
2nd in the FIA European Touring
Car Cup at Vallelunga
Fifth
Gear Television Presenter
Flew
a Sea Harrier jump jet
Autosport National
Racing Driver of the Year
nominee
2004 3rd
BTCC Drivers’ Championship
with SEAT Sport UK - with
7 race wins, 13 podiums and
more racing laps led than
any other driver.
BRDC Silver
Star Winner
Fifth Gear (C5)
Television Presenter
Speed
Sunday (ITV1 - Live) Television
Presenter
Racing Rivals television
presenter, with Terri Dwyer
1000kms Bathurst with Holden
Racing Team – DNF
Autosport National
Racing Driver of the Year
nominee
2003 Holiday
Inn SEAT Cupra Championship
Driver Mentor
Racing
Rivals television presenter,
with Nell McAndrew
2002 3rd Ascar
Championship
Winner of the
Mintex Most Popular Driver
Award
2001 British
Touring Car Champion
- with 8 wins, 17 podiums,
7 poles and 11 fastest laps
BRDC
Silver Star Winner
Autosport National
Racing Driver of the Year
nominee
2000 5th BTCC
with Vauxhall 888 Motorsport
- 3 wins, 5 podiums and 2 poles
10 th 1000kms
Bathurst with Holden Racing
Team
1999 5th BTCC
with Williams Renault Nescafe
Blend 37 - 1 win, 3 podiums and
1 pole
1998 5th BTCC
with Williams Renault Nescafe
Blend 37 – 1
win, 6 podiums and 2 poles
1997 3rd BTCC
with Williams Renault - 2 wins,
9 podiums and 4 poles
Standing Record Pole
Position for 3 debut races
1000kms Bathurst with Williams
Renault Merpati ANZ - retired
from lead. Set fastest lap
and standing Super Touring
lap record
Autosport National
Racing Driver of the Year
nominee
1996 Elf
Renault Spider UK
Cup Champion - 11 wins, 2
podiums, 13 poles and 9 fastest
laps
1st European Renault Spider
Race at British GP support
race
Autosport Club
Racing Driver of the Year
nominee
1995 3 races
in the Formula Renault Sport
European Championship
1994 BTCC
Test Driver with
Nissan Old Spice Racing
1993 5
th British Formula
Vauxhall Championship with
Martin Donnely Talking Pages
1992 British
Formula 3 Championship
in works Duckhams Van Diemen,
run by Team
Lotus P1 Engineering
1991 European
Formula Renault Champion
in works Duckhams
Van Diemen
4th British Formula
Renault Championship in works
Duckhams Van Diemen - 10
wins, 9 poles and 11 fastest
laps
Autosport Club
Racing Driver of the Year
nominee
1990 Racing
Car Debut
5th British
Formula Renault Championship
with Manor Motorsport - 1
win, 3 podiums, 1
pole and 4 fastest
laps
1989 Winfield
Pilote Elf School – 2nd
overall in Pilote Elf Championship.
Most successful British
driver in history
of school
1980-‘87 Karting
- internationally
from 1983
1983 Junior World
'Grand Prix' Champion
Multiple
British Kart Champion
Multiple
British Kart Team
Member
The story so far
Born in Oxford, England in
1967 and educated at Kings
School, Tynemouth in Newcastle
Upon Tyne, Jason Plato’s
father worked in the motor
trade and accepted a racing
kart as a bad debt. Little did
he know that this would launch
his son on a highly successful
career which would make him one
of British motorsport’s
most charismatic and popular
racing personalities.
So, at the tender age of 11,
Jason started to drive this
crotchety old kart around the
petrol pumps on Sundays when
the garage was closed. Jason
then had exclusive use of the
kart after his father blew the
engine, spun and vowed never
to drive it again – so
aged 12 Jason began racing,
on local kart tracks in Northumberland.
‘Naturally talented’ is
an over-used expression, but
it’s certainly not out
of place when describing Jason – for
he quickly became British
Kart Champion and, in 1983, Junior
World 'Grand Prix' Champion.
Having left school at 17, Jason
had a variety of jobs, including
managing a Saxoe shoe shop and
selling Kirby vacuum cleaners
door-to-door. He also helped
his father set up an insurance
marketing company, who he worked
for in London for two years with
the express aim of introducing
himself to potential racing sponsors.
After some research, Jason
attended a two-week course
at the famous Winfield racing
school in France, where he finished
runner-up and just missed
out on a fully paid drive in
the French Formula Renault Championship.
He was the top British driver
the school had ever seen,
and having attracted the attention
of Renault UK, and with sponsors
met in the insurance business,
Jason made his racing car
debut in the 1990 British Formula
Renault Championship – initially
with Cuda Motorsport and
then, after six races, with Manor
Motorsport, the leading team
in the formula .
To this day, Jason remains “indebted” to
three men who influenced
his early racing - John Booth,
owner of Manor Motorsport, Ralph
Firman Snr., boss of Van Diemen,
and Tim Jackson of Renault UK
. Booth gave Jason his break
in 1990, and having finished
5 th in Formula Renault that
year, Jason moved up to the works
Duckhams Van Diemen in 1991,
scoring 10 wins, nine poles and
11 fastest laps on his way to
4 th in the British series, and
also winning the European Formula
Renault title.
In 1992 Jason raced the rather
revolutionary works Duckhams
Van Diemen Formula 3 car
in the British F3 Championship,
run by Team Lotus P1 Engineering.
He led races but ran out
of money mid-season and was forced
to stop. Jason’s most disappointing
year in racing was compounded
when he broke his ankle in a
karting accident – it was
certainly a season to resign
to the history books.
In 1993 he raced with Martin
Donnely Racing, finishing
5 th in the British Vauxhall
Lotus Championship, but money
to continue to progress in single
seaters was lacking. Having been
tipped as a potential future
F1 star, an impoverished Plato
got a job as a racing instructor
at Silverstone to “avoid getting a proper
job” and in 1994 and ’95
did very little racing. He decided
to change career slightly and
pursue a touring car drive, and
during this time he landed a
deal as test driver Nissan Old
Spice Racing – not least
because the team owner of
Janspeed was his uncle and the
number one driver, Keith Odor,
was his cousin! Thoughts of racing
in the 1995 BTCC vanished when
Nissan withdrew from racing in
the UK and then, tragically,
Keith was killed racing in Berlin
in September 1995.
Jason wrestled with the concept
of quitting motorsport, but decided
to give his career one last go.
He spent every last penny he
had on a computer to prepare
sponsorship proposals and in
the autumn of 1995 he negotiated
a deal with Manor Motorsport
to do three races in the Formula
Renault Sport, with backing from
Swan National Leasing.
It was a great success, and
Renault UK’s Tim Jackson
and John Millett (Radbourne
Racing) talked Jason into contesting
an all-new series in 1996,
the Elf Renault Spider UK Cup
Championship, in a car run by
Mardi Gras Motorsport. It was
a big gamble, but with a Championship
winning prize of a works test
with the Williams Renault BTCC
team, it was billed as a stepping
stone to the BTCC.
With continued support from
Swan National Vehicle Leasing,
Jason dominated the 12 race
series, with 11 wins from 13
poles securing the title. Even
the prize-winning test went perfectly.
Jason had achieved everything
he could have done in 1996, but
a letter from Frank Williams
at the end of year was devastating.
Williams was looking for a household
name to race in its 1997 BTCC
team and Jason wasn’t it.
Bye.
“I woke up one Tuesday
morning full of rage and drove
down to see Frank,” recalls
Jason. “I arrived at nine
o’clock , walked in with
a suitcase – it was completely
empty but I thought it looked
good - and Frank’s PA said
I couldn’t just come in
off the street and demand to
see one of the most influential
people in motorsport and anyway,
he wasn’t in! I had made
a big stance and I wasn’t
going to be been blown out by
a PA, so I decided to sit in
my car and hijack Frank when
he arrived! The three hour wait
was the biggest emotional rollercoaster
of my life, but when Frank’s
car pulled up I chased after
it and begged him for five minutes
of his time – and fair
play to him he gave me five minutes.
Two days after our meeting Frank
telephoned to invite me to a
test at Snetterton. It was the
final test to decide which driver
would race in the Williams Renault
BTCC team and the best man would
get the job. I got the job, and
since then I haven’t looked
back.”
Jason immediately repaid Frank’s
faith by setting pole on all
three of his first BTCC races – a
debut record which still stands
today. “When I’m
old and grey and people ask me ‘what
was the best moment of your career’,
I think those three pole positions
will be hard to beat,” says
Jason.
Another unbroken record, established
by Jason in 1997, is the
Super Touring Car lap record
which he set during the Bathurst
1000km race in Australia. With
Alain Menu, Jason’s Williams
Renault Merpati ANZ was in
a class of its own and holding
a comfortable lead when the
differential broke.
Jason enjoyed three highly
successful years with the
Williams Renault team, finishing
3 rd in the 1997 BTCC and 5 th
in 1998 and ‘99 – and
only left Williams when the team’s
BTCC programme came to an
end.
Now with experience and a racing
pedigree second to none,
Jason’s
begging days were well and
truly over. As soon as his services
became available, top teams
were eager to employ him and
in 2000 he joined Vauxhall. After
three race victories, which included
winning on his BTCC race
debut with the team, he once
again finished 5 th in the BTCC.
He also returned to Bathurst
, and in torrential rain he and
team-mate Yvan Muller took a
V8 Holden to 10 th place.
In 2001 Jason became British
Touring Car Champion, winning
eight races from seven poles.
But it wasn’t quite as
straightforward as that, for
the titanic battle for the title
was between Jason and his team-mate,
Yvan Muller, and that didn’t
always fit comfortably with
team politics, particularly as
there was no quarter given by
either driver on the circuit.
Nor should there have been says
Jason.
“It was just a case of
the best two drivers in the best
two cars racing for the title,
and it was hard fought,” admits
Jason. “It was like Prost
and Senna racing at McLaren – it’s
what people want to see, real
wheel-to-wheel stuff. There is
no point being nice to everyone
if you are doing all you can
to beat them, life just isn’t
like that. I left at the end
of the season sticking two fingers
up to the team, which was a shame
because what was important, and
still is, was that I had won
the title and I’ll always
be extremely grateful to
the people at Vauxhall and proud
that I won the Championship.”
In 2002 Jason raced in the
UK-based Ascar series, whetting
his appetite for the US-based
NASCAR series and racing ovals
State-side one day.
In 2003 Jason signed a three
year contract with SEAT Sport
UK . It was a dream job that
enabled him to do the three
things he loves most – give advice
to young drivers as the driver
mentor in the Holiday Inn SEAT
Cupra Championship, work on television
as presenter for ‘Racing
Rivals’ (the docu-soap
that follows the drivers
in the series) and race in the
BTCC. It also takes Jason on
a journey, where he can help
to develop a brand new BTCC team
and have an instrumental influence
of the direction the team will
take right from day one.
Jason returned to the BTCC
in 2004 for the first time
since he’d won the title – and
in characteristic style, took
the series by storm. Driving
for the new SEAT Sport UK team,
Jason took the Toledo Cupra to
its first race win on its maiden
BTCC race meeting at Thruxton,
setting a trend for what was
to follow. By the end of the
season, Jason had won seven races
(two more than any other driver)
and stood on the podium 13 times
to finish 3 rd in the Drivers’ Championship – with
only the two previous BTCC Champions,
James Thompson and Yvan Muller,
ahead of him. He also led more
race laps (161) than Thompson
(75) and Yvan Muller (72) did
added together, and ensured SEAT
Sport UK finished runners-up
in the Teams’ Cup at its
first attempt at the BTCC.
Jason returned to Mount Panorama
in 2004 for his third attempt
at the Bathurst 1000kms race,
sharing a Holden Racing Team
VY Commodore with Peter Brock.
Whilst limping back to the pits
with a puncture, Jason was hit
hard off the racing line by John
Cleland, putting him out of the
race. His trip to Australia did
improve, as Jason stayed on to
celebrate his 37 th birthday
and become engaged to girlfriend
Sophie.
In 2004 Jason also continued
to expand his television
work. His passion for presenting
began in 1999, when he co-presented ‘Driven’ on
Channel 4 , which attracted an
audience of up to 3.5 million
viewers. This continued thru
to 2002 and was followed in 2003
by the first series of ‘Racing
Rivals’, which he presented
with Nell McAndrew. It was an
incredibly successful groundbreaking
way of following drivers in a
racing series and was televised
on ITV1, ITV2, Motors TV and
Bravo and made into a nine hour
triple DVD set. In 2004 Jason
co-presented a new live motorsport
show on ITV1 called ‘Speed
Sunday’, as well as ‘Fifth
Gear’ on Channel 5 and
the new series of ‘Racing
Rivals’ with ex-Hollyoaks
star Terri Dwyer, broadcast
on Channel 4, Motors TV and Bravo.
In 2005, Jason began the British
Touring Car Championship
as one of the favourites, but
the competition was a lot tougher
and a weight penalty on Super
2000 cars like the SEAT Toledo
Cupra made racing with the front-running
BTCC cars very difficult. Nonetheless,
race wins at Oulton Park
, Snetterton and Brands Hatch
gave Jason 4 th place in the
Drivers’ title
and helped SEAT finish runners-up
in the Manufacturers’ Championship.
Jason’s personal highlight
of 2005 happened above ground – four
and a half miles above sea level
and at 650mph to be precise,
when he became one of less than
200 people to fly a British Aerospace
Sea Harrier F/A2. A keen pilot,
Jason visited the Royal Naval
Air Station (RNAS) in Yeovilton
to join the Royal Navy’s
supersonic low level fighter
elite squadron and under the
guidance of Commander Henry Mitchell,
Jason flew the £22M air-to-air
combat jet fighter in close
formation. Having descended back
down through the clouds, the
climax came when Jason successfully
hovered the jump jet over the
airbase.
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