Jason Plato will test team-mate Ash Sutton’s Subaru next week, as the two-time British Touring Car Champion tries to understand the issues that have seen him fail to claim a top ten finish so far in 2017.
Plato took two 11th-place finishes in the most recent round at Oulton Park, which are the Subaru driver’s best results of a difficult season.
The results came despite team-mate Sutton taking a podium in race one, followed by a win in race two, as he failed to experience any of the issues which are hampering Plato’s season.
“I’ll be driving Ash’s car next Tuesday to help us find out what’s what,” said Plato to primary sponsor, Adrian Flux. “We need a day away with the two cars to work it out.
“There’s progress on my car at times but we’re still trying to fathom what exactly is wrong with it. At the moment it still won’t do what we want it to do.
“Mine is not responding in the same way as the other cars – we made changes on the other cars and got the same reaction from each, but made the same changes on my car and there was no reaction, so something’s not working.
“Ash drove mine before the accident and said ‘I want exactly what he’s got!’.”
Along with the Mountune Ford engines, the four Subarus received an increase in boost levels from championship promoter TOCA ahead of the Oulton Park races, after the performance of the engines were monitored closely by TOCA.
Plato is currently 19th overall in the drivers’ championship standings on 18 points, whilst Sutton crept further up the order at Oulton Park to leave the meeting sixth overall, a huge 94 points further ahead.