Plato dominates for Vauxhall at Thruxton

Plato scored two second places in the season-opening rounds at Brands Hatch last weekend and as a result lies joint first in the drivers' championship with James Thompson on 26 points.

"We made some changes," said Plato, "but we didn't finish the programme we intended to do. It is important to come away quickest though."

Peugeot were firmly beaten last weekend as the Astras took all three podium places in both races at Brands and the French marque continued to struggle at a cold and windy Thruxton on Friday.

The highest placed 406 Coupe was that of Steve Soper in fifth. The touring and sportscar legend was more than a second behind the Egg-backed Astra of Phil Bennett and suffered a major accident when a tyre failure pitched the car off the track and through the tyre barriers at Church corner.

Soper escaped unhurt, but was unable to continue in his own car so he jumped into the lime-green machine of team mate Matt Neal, who was not present at the test, and continued running.

"We're still learning," said Soper, "but about the wrong things. We need to understand the car more. It feels good, but the time isn't there, but by running in Matt's car, I was able to learn things from his set-up."

Yvan Muller, who finished second to team mate Plato, also had a tyre failure, the cause of which is not yet known.

Top of the Production Class runners was points-leader Roger Moen in an HTML-run Peugeot 306. The Norwegian finished seventh overall while team mate Simon Harrison, who won last weekend's sprint race, finished just outside the top 10 in 11th after being hampered by gearbox problems.

Surprise of the day came from Robert Collard who finished ninth overall in his West Surrey Racing-built Renault Clio. The 32-year-old finished an impressive sixth in the Brands sprint race.

"Today we really showed the true potential of the car," Collard said. "We had problems at the first race, but this is the pace we expect for the rest of the year."

The teams have a two-week wait until the second round of the championship which takes place at Thruxton on May 7.


Jason Plato, Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m17.704s
Yvan Muller, Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m18.044s
James Thompson, Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m18.289s
Phil Bennett, Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m18.732s
Steve Soper, Peugeot 406 Coupe 1m19.981s
Dan Eaves, Peugeot 406 Coupe 1m20.860s
Roger Moen, Peugeot 306 1m22.130s
David Pinkney, Alfa Romeo 147 1m22.337s
Robert Collard, Renault Clio 1m22.790s
James Kaye, Honda Accord 1m22.798s