JASON Plato believes he is getting closer to a first victory of the season after showing further signs of igniting his campaign.

The 48-year-old scored two second-place finishes in the sixth round of Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Croft, before coming tenth in the last race of the day.

It sees Plato, who has found himself on the rostrum on five occasions in the last two rounds, climb up to 13th in the standings with 90 points.

Ahead of the previous meeting at Oulton Park, modifications were made to Plato’s Levorg GT and it paid dividends, with Silverline Subaru BMR Racing teammate Colin Turkington claiming victory at the Cheshire circuit.

The Ulsterman also triumphed in the first race at Croft, beating Plato by 1.353secs and the Oxford-based driver is upbeat about his prospects for the rest of the season.

“It was a really successful weekend,” he said.

“We made further progress with the car, and to come away with podiums in races one and two was great.

“Race three was my first in rear-wheel drive in the wet, and it took me a few laps to find my feet and understand the grip levels before I properly got into the groove, but it was a useful experience and now I know what to expect next time.

“We take some great data away from Croft and know what areas we still need to work on – we’re homing in.”

Turkington was in command from the start in race one, but he had to contend with Plato and three spells behind the safety car, before the duo scored the first one-two finish for the Hertfordshire-based team.

It could have been a similar story in the second race, but Plato and Turkington collided while battling for the lead.

They ultimately had to settle for second and third respectively as Rob Collard took advantage to claim victory.

The last race of the weekend turned out to be the first wet run since Brands Hatch in 2014, with Plato picking up solid points in tenth.

l OXFORD'S Matt Chapman was also in action at Croft, leaving with a pair of seventh-place finishes in rounds 12 and 13 of the Ginetta GT5 Challenge.

The 16-year-old Total Control Racing driver’s bid was largely impacted in qualifying, setting the eighth fastest time.

Despite challenging for a place in the top six, Chapman finished seventh in Saturday’s race after running wide.

He then collected the same amount of points on Sunday after Jac Constable was penalised for a yellow flag infringement.

The next round is at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium – the only oversees round in the series – from July 8-9.