Knockhill Analysis
Despite a reduced field at Knockhill, the weekend still produced a fascinating round of British Touring car action. The immediate conclusion to draw can be done so by glancing at the drivers championship standings. It seems now for the first time this season, the contenders have taken a step away from the rest of the pack and now it looks as if four men will fight for the title.
Jason Plato leads the way as he has done for the majority of the season. He has a 20 point cushion at the moment, which sounds a substantial advantage but with a race win worth 15 points, it’s not worth him or his fans cracking open the champagne just yet. Plato had another solid weekend, winning the final race of the day and finishing in the top six in all three races. In doing so he showed just how adaptable the Chevrolet Cruze is, there hasn’t really been a circuit this season that hasn’t suited it. By not getting involved in anyone else’s accident or throwing it off the road he has maintained a healthy championship lead.
Plato’s nearest challenger is one he knows oh so well: double champion Matt Neal. After two difficult rounds, Neal and team mate Gordon Shedden enjoyed a track that suited their car down to the ground, enabling them to take a win each. The two rounds to come are at tracks that are expected to also suit the Honda. With Shedden lying fourth in the points table, this is bad news for Plato as when the Honda has found a circuit it‘s liked this season, silverware has tended to head down the Dynamics end of the pit lane.
The fourth man in the hunt is Team Aon’s Tom Onslow-Cole, who sits between the two Hondas in the standings. However, the steps taken by TOCA to cut the speed advantage held by the LPG powered Focus seemed to have finally had an effect, if the performance of the two cars at Knockhill is anything to go by. The two drivers could only qualify seventh and eighth respectively compared to two weeks earlier at Silverstone when they locked out the front row. However, the difference in circuit has again to be taken into account and the long straights at Silverstone allowed the Focuses a chance to demonstrate their far superior straight line speed. The signs are from Knockhill that the Aon cars still possess this asset. The main reason why Tom Onslow-Cole was able to keep Jason Plato behind him for so long in race three was down to the pace of the Ford on the start/finish straight. Plato had to wait for Tom to make a couple of small errors on the way onto the straight to stand a chance of pulling alongside, which he duly did and then brake later into turn one. The next circuit on the calendar, Donington Park, does have long straights so it will be interesting to see if the Fords are back at the front during practice and qualifying.
Away from the championship protagonists, the two stand out performers of the weekend were Steven Kane and Paul O’Neill. Kane picked up an excellent third place in the opener, pulling off great moves on Onslow-Cole, Plato and Neal on the way to the podium, no mean feat! He was also unlucky to finish fifth in the second race, finding himself on the receiving end of a robust overtake by Plato and a poorly misjudged attempt at an overtake by Chilton, as he slipped from third in the latter stages. A mechanical failure prevented him from starting the final race of the day. It was in this race that O’Neill particularly shone. Starting tenth, he fought his way up to fourth and but for paying Matt Neal perhaps a bit too much respect, a podium would have been his. What makes this so exceptional is the fact that O’Neill and his Tech-Speed team mate John George were the only drivers running BTC specification cars at the weekend, the oldest type still eligible for entry in the championship. If there was ever a case to be made for a driver outperforming the car, this was it.
And the Knockhill weekend can’t be rounded off without a mention of the marshals who found themselves under the scrutiny of viewers of ITV’s BTCC coverage as a series of mishaps were played out. As amusing as these incidents were, it’s important not to forget the crucial role each and everyone of them plays, after all without them, motor sport just wouldn’t function in the fluid, safe and enjoyable manner that it currently does.
Photo credit: Steven James Knightely
Thomas Surgay
