SEAT Sport : a fantastic start to the season!
By Dave Brockman and Verity Smith:
Race one - a solid startSaturday's qualifying session had seen Jason Plato achieve his aim of a top ten place, lining up in P8. Team mate Robert Huff was only half a second slower in 11th. All the cars would start without success ballast, but with VX locking out the front row and established teams like Honda and MG also at the front, a race win would be all but impossible.Both the drivers were hoping to run reliably and to score points, but experienced campaigner Plato was mindful of the new race format and had a little trick up his sleeve in the closing laps.... Rob Huff - 6th placeThat was a great first Touring Car race, you must be well satisfied.
I just wanted to make sure that I got a finish and a good position for the second race and it worked nicely. The car worked well all race and didn't miss a beat, it was great. At one point you were having a great battle with Jason. Obviously you didn't want to take him out - what was going through your head? It's Plato at the end of the day so I was a bit cautious coming up behind him! I just sat behind him for a few laps, then got a great tow from him coming up the straight and made a professional move on him. Bentwood got by as well, and we just carried on from there. We're fifth on the grid for the next race, hopefully I can get another good start. Jason Plato - 8th placeYour first few laps were fantastic but over the course of the race you seemed to have some handling problems at the rear of your car. Was it a case of working the tyres too hard?
I needed to look after my tyres in case towards the end of the race somewhere about tenth place got a bit busy! I just ran at my own pace, stayed clear of the rumble strips at Church and the chicane, there were no dramas. When Rob and Michael Bentwood got past you did you have a problem or was that more tactics? I let them past, I wanted tenth! I didn't do it until the end of the race because I didn't know exactly where everybody else was. I knew there was a 5 second gap between 9th and 11th, there was a big gap behind the Proton [of Shaun Watson-Smith]. I thought that if I dropped back behind the Proton then nobody would close that gap if I kept my foot down. The car seemed to run well all race. Yes it's been pretty good. Obviously we've got work to do before the next race but so far so good. It's reliable, the balance is good but like everybody else we want more power and more grip. You're starting from the second row for race two, what can you do from there? It's going to be a light car so we'll be able to look after our tyres, but the same applies to Chilton, he's going to be quick. In a perfect world it would be nice to think we could get a podium. That would be nice, a great start. It's always nice to spray some champagne around and it would be great for all the team. All the guys here from SEAT Sport and Ray Mallock have worked so hard over the last few weeks to get everything ready so it would be for them really. Race two - victory already!
Getting both cars to a points-scoring finish in their first ever race was a great result for the team.
Clever tactics by Jason Plato had netted them a second-row spot on the grid, and team mate Huff would start just behind him. Thoughts of a podium were running through both drivers' heads, but few would have predicted that 28½ minutes after the lights went out, one of them would be standing on the top step! Still dripping with a mixture of champagne and sweat, an overjoyed Jason Plato spoke to us: Jason Plato - 1st placeCongratulations, that was a great result!Thanks! A fantastic result, much better than we ever dreamed of! The strategy worked out really well. It was a great result for the team, and the main thing is it gives everyone a good rev-up.
I'm a bit surprised by that win, we did all our work during testing on race runs because we knew we weren't going to fight for pole position unless we played the strategy game with these reverse grids. There's no point wasting tyres and we got them sorted and some of the work we did in Spain was to get the car sorted so that it would be as strong as possible during a race. I never dreamed that we'd win the second race of the series but we always thought that if we played the first race right then we'd be capable of a top six result. Did the safety car help you at all? No not really because I just wanted to keep running, and when you relax you let the others catch up to you. But anyway, a great result and now I'm going to party! Rob Huff - D.N.F.For Rob the race brought retirement, but he joined the team at the podium celebrations and paid tribute to their efforts.
I got a good restart but got hit from behind, I went round the outside and got pushed into one of the Petronas cars and that was it, the end of my race. After that my brakes were damaged and that was that. Encouraging to see Jason take the win of course? Absolutely brilliant, fantastic. It couldn't have been a better weekend for us so far. Absolutely storming! Race three - Jason scores, Huff battlesRound three saw Plato back in a familiar position, lining up in pole position with arch-enemy Yvan Muller alongside him. Huff would start near the back and have an uphill task if he was to take home some more points. Again, both drivers gave us their comments on the race and the weekend as a whole:Jason Plato - 4th placeThat's three races in a row where you were at the sharp end, and you had a nice little battle with Jimmy.Yes it was a great little battle with Jimmy, but I was complaining on the radio the whole way through the race that I'd picked up a bad vibration which was getting worse and worse and worse.
So I kind of conceded a position otherwise I think I could have held him off. I'm not disappointed though, it's been a great weekend's work. Exactly, you've had a win and a stack of points. I think we've done a lot better than we thought we would. We've fought with the Vauxhalls and with maximum ballast, that's got to bode well for the future. Rob Huff - D.N.F.
Slowly but surely as I've done more laps the handling got worse until eventually I tried to turn left for the chicane and nothing happened! I went straight on and lost my third front splitter of the week but there you go. Onwards and upwards as they say, Brands Hatch can only get better. We had a great race this morning and it's just a shame that after that I got involved in all the midfield crap. Unlucky, but there you are. 
So for the team the weekend exceeded all their expectations. Jason Plato finds himself 3rd in the championship with 28 points, the same score as VX's James Thompson.
A further 5 points from Rob Huff means that the team are already 3rd in the teams' standings but more importantly the outfit has earned respect and credibility in only the first racing weekend. SEAT are keeping their feet firmly on the ground, nobody at the team is under any illusion that the championship is now a possibility, but their experiences at Thruxton have given them a solid base on which to build. There'll be plenty more podiums throughout 2004, and under favourable circumstances nobody would be suprised to see either driver on the top step once more. Many thanks to Jason and Rob for taking the time to make these interviews possible on such a busy weekend, and congratulations to the whole SEAT Sport UK team from Dave and Verity. |
For SEAT Sport the weekend would bring many unknowns. Testing had shown that the car had decent pace and reliability, but the first race of a new season always brings its own unique pressures.
The car worked well all race and didn't miss a beat, it was great.
