Jason Plato hauled himself back into the title race last weekend as the teams took to the Brands Hatch GP circuit for round nine of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

After ruling out his title hopes earlier in the season the two-time BTCC champion, racing for Silverline Chevrolet (RML) for the third successive season, notched up his eighth victory this season with a brace in the first two races at Brands Hatch.

“We’ve got the car set-up just perfectly,” said Plato. “It was unbeatable out there today, thanks in no small part to the fine-tuning we did in free practice. It was amazing in qualifying, amazing during the races, and the performance really shows why the team at RML are the best in the business for preparing Touring Cars.”

Jason Plato’s title defence was given a great boos when his two nearest rivals, who heading into the weekend were joint leaders in the championship, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, suffered punctures during race one which severely compromised their weekend allowing the Oxfordshire racer to capitalise.

“Despite the challenges we’ve faced this year, the Cruze is the best Touring Car I’ve ever driven, and the hard work we’ve put into the set-up has really paid dividends,” added Plato.

The teams now head to Silverstone and the ‘home of motorsport’ for the season finalé in just under two weeks time and Plato admits that it’s going to be tough to overhaul the five point deficit to championship leader, Matt Neal, but not impossible.

“Realistically, it’s going to be a tough challenge,” said Plato. “The high speed nature of Silverstone will allow the turbo cars to run at full throttle, which will make things a little difficult for us, but if it rains then anything could happen.”

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

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.