Jason Plato has played down his hopes of challenging for the British Touring Car Championship title, despite securing two wins at Snetterton, claiming his MG is nearing the end of its development curve, whereas the rear-wheel drive BMW still has more to come.

The Oxford driver was in imperious form last weekend at Snetterton, the KX Clubcard Fuel Save car easing to pole position before taking two victories and a fourth place finish come Sunday.

The MG man’s double victory was his first BTCC top step finish since Donington back in April and has seen him rise to third in the standings, albeit still 43 points off Colin Turkington’s lead However, despite his Snetterton success Plato remains pessimistic about his chances of ousting Turkington, given he is already extracting the maximum out of his front-wheel drive MG.

“I think the difference is, the races where we scored big last year, we’ve been beaten by Colin,” he said.

“There’s nothing left in the tank. There are no big gains to come from anyone.

“If you don’t quite nail it in qualifying then you’re further down the grid than you would have been last year. We still need Colin to to go into the fence.”

Plato has been one of the most vocal drivers regarding the current state of the TOCA regulations.

“We’re not allowed to change anything,” he said.

“Over than a tickle here, tickle there, we’ve done all that before. We are where we are.

“We’ve got a slightly different thought process for the rest of the year in terms of how we move the car. But there are no eureka moments – I wish there were.

“We’re approaching the buffers on what we can change and the next step – well there isn’t a next step forward unless they allow us to make changes.

The next round of is at Knockhill, Scotland on August 23-24.

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