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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">BRITISH TOURING CHAMPIONSHIP</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">08/04/2006</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">Plato Gives New Leon A Front Row BTCC Debut</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">Plato Happy With Clean Side Of Grid</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><img border="1" src="Storage/seat-plato-btcc-brands-q-06.jpg"></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2"><B>Plato Gives New Leon A Front Row BTCC Debut</B> <BR> <BR> Jason Plato will start Round 1 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship from the favoured outside position on the front row of the grid, having qualified in second place for the first of three races at Brands Hatch tomorrow. <BR> <BR> Driving his new SEAT Leon, Jason lapped the 1.226 mile Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in a time of 49.045 seconds. Team-mate James Thompson qualified third in a time of 49.200, which was only 0.225 seconds behind pole-sitter Tom Chilton. <BR> <BR> SEAT Sport UK spent the first free practice session this morning working on a good race set-up, with both Jason and James completing a full 24 lap race distance. The second free practice session was intended to find a qualifying pace, but this proved a little more difficult and both Leons ventured into qualifying with an untried set-up. However, the team’s race engineers were equal to the task, giving Jason and James a balanced car that enabled them to claim second and third on the grid. <BR> <BR> Jason said: “I’m reasonably pleased. We found a very good race balance in the first free practice session this morning and in the second we tried a few different things to make the Leon quicker for qualifying and they didn’t really work. Come qualifying we had to take a gamble and go out on a set-up we thought would work but one we hadn’t tried before and we weren’t far off at all. We’re more confident with our race set-up and having qualified second we’re best placed on the front row of the grid, because we’re on the outside of the track looking down and Tom on pole will have an uphill start.” <BR> <BR> James said: “That was hard work! We were fastest this morning in the first free practice session, but we missed the second free practice session because we found a fault which kept us in the garage. That prevented us going out and finding a qualifying set-up, so for qualifying we stuck with our race set-up, which is a little easier on the tyres. I pushed hard though and finished third, which isn’t too bad. The most important thing is that we’ve got a good race balance and a good race set-up, so I’m looking forward to race day.”</FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>