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| Plato pushing hard over the notorious Rockingham kerbs on his way to a win in Race 1. It's actually dry! |
Race
day at Rockingham arrived and the MG KX Momentum team were faced with
the prospect of a change in recent fortune as well as changeable
weather conditions. A season’s best qualifying session for the team
with Jason Plato’s fourth pole of the year and a fifth on the grid
for Andy Neate ensured that the drivers came to the circuit hopeful
for a good haul of points to set them up for the remainder of the
season.
Race
One saw pole man Jason Plato take an early advantage over the
pursuing field and he developed a commanding lead which enabled him
to comfortably control the race and exploit the speed advantage the
MG6 had over the rest of the field. Andy Neate’s race wasn’t as
straight forward, dropping down a couple of places at the start,
which were swiftly taken back over the next couple of laps. Andy
carried on in fifth for most of the race, eventually finishing
seventh after some battling with championship protagonist Matt Neal
and a hard-charging Rob Collard. Plato finished the race 3.3 seconds
clear of second place with a seemingly straight forward, lights to
flag victory which gave him Pole Position for Race Two.
Race
Two was held under relentless heavy rain, giving the drivers
something to think about as track conditions all weekend had been
bone dry. The start saw Jason Plato take a cautious approach, losing
out on a couple of places in the run down to turn one. Andy’s Race
Two was short lived, being turned around at the second corner and
ending up in the gravel, leaving him with it all to do from the back
of the grid in Race Three. Jason stuck at it, clearly using all his
experience to find out how to get the best from his car on the
slippery Rockingham tarmac, this enabled him to pick up his second
podium of the day with third place to add to the points tally of the
weekend.
Race
Three and the reverse grid saw Plato start from seventh and with a
few changes having been made to the MG6, his eyes were on completing
a hat-trick of podiums and making further inroads into the
championship lead. Andy started from the back after his brief Race
Two, and his consistent approach meant he was able to move up to
finish fourteenth in the spread out pack. Jason once again was faced
with taking the fight to the Honda’s and a late charge in which he
set numerous personal best lap times got him side by side through the
high-speed turn one with Matt Neal but the move didn’t stick, it
was good enough for third though and another good haul of points
keeping the championship fight alive.
Jason
Plato, MG KX Momentum Racing #99:
“I’m
naturally thrilled with three podiums and encouraged by what we have
learnt about the car over the course of the day. We leave this
weekend almost where we started it - In touching distance of the
championship lead and moving onwards to Silverstone and then Brands
Hatch I’m confident we are in a strong position to challenge for
the crown.”
Andy
Neate, MG KX Momentum Racing #44:
“We
came to this weekend hopeful for three solid results, qualifying and
Race One lived up to the promise but then Race Two was a short lived
affair which really damaged chances of getting much from Race Three.
I can take the positives of Saturday away from this weekend and am
glad I could show my pace and from the teams perspective a good
weekend for Jason’s championship challenge.”
Ian
Harrison, MG KX Momentum Racing Team Principal:
“A bit of a frustrating
day really, if the weather had stayed dry we would certainly have
been much stronger as our wet set-up wasn’t quite there in
comparison with the Hondas. We leave not having made enough inroads,
the championship is still mathematically possible but it’s going to
be a tough challenge.”
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