Jason Plato took advantage of a difficult weekend for title rival Matt Neal by claiming a podium finish in each of the three races at Snetterton, to close the gap on the championship lead from forty points to just twenty.

Plato netted his second consecutive pole position and made full use of it by converting it to victory in the opening race on Sunday. He was also partly responsible for Neal’s poor weekend after making contact with the Honda Racing driver on the first lap and pitching him into a spin that dropped him to the back of the field.

Plato was denied a double victory by contact at the Montreal hairpin on the opening lap of race two, that forced him wide and allowed Gordon Shedden, James Nash and Frank Wrathall through. Plato found his way back past Wrathall later in the race but was unable to catch the leading pair and finished third.

He repeated his race two result in the final race of the day, from sixth on the grid. For the majority of the race he battled with the Special Tuning Seat Leon of Dave Newsham and was forced to use every inch of the track to finally squeeze his way through.

Plato said: “We needed both a good haul of points today and for Matt Neal to have a spot of bad luck. In truth, today wasn’t easy, but we got what we wanted under the circumstances and it gives us a real chance to capitalise on this as we head into the last four events of the season.”

He now sits fourth in the championship just twenty points behind new championship leader Mat Jackson and is definitely back in contention to successfully defend his crown.

Photo Credit: Pete Mainey (http://www.psmmotorsportimages.co.uk/)

Tom Surgay is the Porsche Carrera Cup GB correspondant for 2011. Tom's currently studying English Language with Journalism at Huddersfield University. You can contact him at tom@btcccrazy.co.uk or on twitter @tsurgay.