45 Facts About Jason Plato

Timothy Jason Plato was born on 14 October 1967 and is a British racing driver who last competed in the British Touring Car Championship for BTC Racing.

Jason Plato has twice been BTCC Champion, in 2001 for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet.

Jason Plato has finished in the top 3 in the Championship 12 times and holds the record for the most overall race wins in the BTCC.

Jason Plato has served as a presenter on the motoring television series Fifth Gear since 2004.

Jason Plato took pole for his first three races in the Renault Laguna, and ultimately won 2 races as a rookie, taking 3rd in the championship which was won by his team-mate Alain Menu.

Jason Plato was 5th in the series in each of the next two years.

Jason Plato joined Vauxhall in 2000, again taking 5th place in the championship.

Jason Plato was employed by SEAT to help with their driver development in 2003, and when they entered a BTCC team in 2004, he was the natural choice to lead the team.

Jason Plato finished 4th in the 2005 championship with only three wins to his credit during the season, with the team now run by Northern South.

For 2006, Jason Plato continued in the British Touring Car Championship as lead driver for SEAT and their new Leon touring car.

Jason Plato won 2 out of the 3 races at Brands Hatch to keep his faint hopes of winning the BTCC in 2006 alive, but a poor qualifying run at Silverstone finally ended his hopes.

Jason Plato beat Colin Turkington to 2nd in the championship, meaning that he had then finished in each of the top 5 championship positions.

Giovanardi took the series lead at Knockhill but Jason Plato retook it at Donington Park after fighting from 9th on the grid to come 5th in race 1 and then win race 2.

Jason Plato started race 3 from 9th but fought through to take the lead from Mike Jordan, with some uncertainty over whether he had passed under a yellow flag.

Jason Plato is a very worthy champion and there were no shenanigans between me and him.

Jason Plato went into the final rounds at Brands Hatch still mathematically in with a chance of the title, but admitted that the large points difference between his and Giovanardi's made this unrealistic.

However, after holding talks over the off-season with West Surrey Racing and Tempus Sport, Jason Plato decided to return to the BTCC in a privately entered RML Group Chevrolet Lacetti.

At the final round of the season at Brands Hatch, Jason Plato became only the second driver after Dan Eaves at Thruxton in 2005 to win all three races, the first of which he won by a then closest-ever BTCC winning margin of 0.015 seconds, ahead of Tom Chilton.

Jason Plato finished 2nd in the 2009 championship, 5 points behind champion Colin Turkington.

Jason Plato was a championship challenger immediately, with a double victory at Snetterton returning him to the championship lead.

Jason Plato dominated the 2nd half of the season and claimed the 2010 MSA Dunlop British Touring Car Championship by winning round 29 at Brands Hatch on 10 October 2010.

Jason Plato's win was his 60th, equalling Andy Rouse's BTCC record.

Jason Plato remained with the same team in 2011 and won the first round of the season at Brands Hatch, setting a new BTCC record of 61 victories.

On 17 February 2015, it was announced that Jason Plato would be driving alongside Turkington, Aron Smith and Warren Scott for Team BMR during the 2015 BTCC season.

Jason Plato took 6 wins during the year but missed out on the title by four points.

Once the team developed the Levorg into a race winning car, Jason Plato took 9 podiums along with a win at Knockhill in his 500th race.

Jason Plato continued with the team in 2017 but a crash at the first round at Brands Hatch derailed his season before it had begun.

Jason Plato remained with BMR Subaru for 2018, as the team switched from using a Mountune engine to a Swindon engine in an effort to resolve the reliability issues that had hampered Jason Plato's campaign the previous year.

On 20 February 2019, it was announced that Jason Plato would be switching to Power Maxed Racing, driving in the factory-backed Vauxhall Astra.

Jason Plato finished the championship in 7th place with a total of 237 points, with a win in the final race of the season.

Jason Plato took one podium at the opening round at Thruxton, finishing the year in 14th place with 156 points.

Jason Plato finished the year in 17th place, with a single podium at Snetterton.

Jason Plato competed in the Bathurst 1000 twice and the Sandown 500 once, but without any great success.

Jason Plato finished 9th, with co-driver Andy Wilman, presenter and executive producer on Top Gear.

Jason Plato achieved a second-place finish in race 2 of his home round FIA WTCC Race of UK at Silverstone.

Jason Plato won a race and finished second overall in the 2005 European Touring Car Cup.

Jason Plato often competes in historic racing and is a regular at the Goodwood Revival and Members meeting and teamed up with celebrity chef James Martin in a Ford Prefect and with Craig Davies in a Corvette Stingray for the 2012 event.

Jason Plato is a co-presenter for the Channel 5 British TV series Fifth Gear co-starring with Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson and Jonny Smith.

Jason Plato was injured in a Caparo T1 supercar in October 2007 during filming for Fifth Gear at Bruntingthorpe proving ground.

The car caught fire at an estimated 250 kilometres per hour and Jason Plato described his injuries as follows:.

Jason Plato was taken from the scene by former BTCC driver Phil Bennett and after treatment at three hospitals, including Stoke Mandeville Hospital's specialist burns unit, Plato was able to compete in the following weekend's final race in the 2007 BTCC calendar.

Jason Plato presented the Sky One television program Mission Implausible where he and Tania Zaetta competed to perform three stunts over the course of each episode.

On 19 September 2019, Jason Plato released his first autobiography titled How Not to Be a Professional Racing Driver.

Jason Plato was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, and was educated at Chillingham Road Primary School.

Jason Plato is a brand ambassador of Tesco Momentum 99 Fuel, Jigsaw24 and AMX Home Automation Systems.