HE is at the top of the British Touring Car Championship rankings, relishing life with his fledgling Team BMR squad and looking forward to returning to his native North-East to compete at Croft Circuit this weekend.

But as he looks back on the last few weeks, Jason Plato readily admits he cannot stop reflecting on the one that got away.

Having been invited onto last Friday’s one-off return of cult Channel Four television show TFI Friday, Plato found himself behind the wheel of host Chris Evans’ LaFerrari as he tackled a flying lap of the former Top Gear racetrack at Dunsfold Aerodrome.

The challenge was to beat the long-established track record set by the Stig, but after a planned day of testing had to be aborted because of technical problems with the car, Plato returned to the Surrey circuit to film his segment in wet conditions.

As a result, he was unable to claim the record, and with Evans, who has been selected to present a new series of Top Gear, admitting the circuit is unlikely to be used in the future, another opportunity to claim the crown may not be forthcoming.

“It was a massive honour to be part of the show because I was a huge fan of TFI Friday first time around and it was great to be asked to be part of last week’s comeback,” said Plato, who boasts more BTCC career wins than any other driver. “It’s something that had been in the pipeline for quite a while, but I was sworn to secrecy about it and wasn’t able to tell anyone.

“It was only when I was invited to rehearsals that things started to come out, and it was a really fun thing to be involved with. It was Chris’ own car I was driving, so it’s quite an honour to be entrusted with £1.5m worth of someone else’s car!

“The only shame is that I couldn’t get the record. It was glorious weather on the day we were meant to be testing, but unfortunately a few technical things needed to be ironed out.

“We returned on the Friday for the race day, and you could tell straight away that the track was going to be too damp to get a really quick time.

“That said, we still got close, but had the track been dry, we would have absolutely smashed the old record. The LaFerrari is a real bit of kit. I would have loved to have been able to get absolutely everything out of it.”

Plato has previously been involved in the Channel Five motoring show, Fifth Gear, and his appearance on TFI Friday has led to suggestions that he could play a prominent role in Top Gear when it eventually returns to BBC screens.

The 47-year-old did not want to be drawn on any potential future plans, but having been a huge Top Gear fan, he is delighted to see the format returning with Evans at the helm.

“I think anyone who loves cars was sad to see it go,” he said. “Regardless of the rights and wrongs of whatever went on, it was a great format with a great sense of fun and it brought motoring and motorsport into the living rooms of millions of people.

“Anyone involved in the sport has to stand to benefit from that, so from that point of view, it’s great that it’s coming back, although we’ll obviously have to wait and see exactly what the new show looks like.

“For me, Chris Evans is a great choice of host. It’s a big pair of shoes that Jeremy Clarkson has vacated, but if anyone has the bottle and charisma to step into them, Chris is that man.”

Plato knows a fair bit about making a high-profile move as the two-time BTCC champion surprised just about everyone when he left the Triple Eight Engineering Racing team at the end of last season to join Team BMR, a Hertfordshire-based outfit that only entered the touring car ranks in 2013.

The team’s owner, Warren Scott, is also a driver, with Plato also joined by Colin Turkington and Aron Smith in this year’s line up.

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From the outside, Plato’s move looked a huge risk, with Team BMR’s four Volkswagen CCs racking up just two victories last season. However, having discussed the make-up of his engineering line-up at great length prior to committing his services, Plato was always confident of a strong showing.

His faith has proved justified, with this month’s back-to-back victories and a fifth-placed finish at Oulton Park leaving Plato three points clear of Gordon Sheddon in the championship table.

“I know a lot of people looked at what I did over the summer and thought it was a leftfield, risky move,” said Plato. “But one thing I’ve learned from all my years in motorsport is that 99.99% of what most people think they know is absolute rubbish.

“I was reading all of this stuff on internet forums and hearing things from people involved in the sport, but I’d had the conversations and I knew exactly where the team were at and where they wanted to head to.

“I knew the inside story, and once you get going and it all starts to work out great, it’s a great feeling. We’ve got a very ambitious and determined group of people as part of the set-up, and it’s a huge amount of fun to be part of it.

“Getting Colin on board was a big factor, and when Warren raised the idea and asked for my thoughts on it, I just said, ‘Go out and make it happen’.

“It’s a very harmonious team – we’re all completely open and try to help each other – and you’re already starting to see the results of that with the points we’ve been getting.”