We were to meet in Barnard Castle, the town that Boris Johnson’s Svengali Dominic Cummings visited to test his eyesight during the Covid lockdown. The plan was to bring four of the stars of the British Touring Car Championship for an evening of beer, food and an overnight stay in a hotel. We asked the drivers to come along in a car of the brand that they drove for. We had Anthony Reid in a Ford Mondeo, James Thompson in a Honda Accord, David Leslie in a Nissan Primera and Jason Plato in a Renault Laguna. It was 1999, when the BTCC was at the peak of its popularity.

On a whim, while on the way to County Durham, I called Jason Plato just to check that he was en route. “Oh mate,” replied Plato, “James [Thompson] and I have been called to a meeting in Harrogate and we won’t be able to make it.” “That’s bullshit,” I replied, “you’re off clubbing or on hot dates. Turn around now and meet us in the hotel bar at 7pm.” A sheepish Plato with sidekick Thompson in tow duly turned up exactly at seven.

Retired from touring cars after an astonishing 23 seasons, Plato lives in Hampshire, a more mellow version of the racer I met 24 years ago. The clubbing days are long gone and his timekeeping faultless: as I pull into the car park of The Tichborne Arms, Plato is walking across the gravel.

It all started on a garage forecourt in Newcastle where Plato’s dad ran a BMW dealership. “Someone owed Dad a few hundred quid,” explains Plato, “but didn’t have it in cash so Dad took in this old racing kart instead. It must have been around 1979 when I would have been 12. Dad and his service manager used to drive this kart around the forecourt on a Sunday when the garage was shut. Not surprisingly, I soon asked if I could have a go on it. The forecourt had its limitations but nearby was Tyne Car Auctions and they had a huge car park that was empty during the week. We’d mess around up there on a Tuesday evening and then the police would turn up and kick us off and we’d come back half an hour later.

“It was just a bit of fun but then one of Dad’s mates, a bloke called Brian Chivers, who was into karting, took us up to a local kart track called Felton. Dad had a go and then I was allowed to drive. I was quicker and Brian said, ‘Bloody hell, he can do this.’ And that’s where it all started.

“We joined a local Northumberland kart club and started competing at tracks like Felton, Wombwell and Rowrah, near Carlisle. When I joined they asked me which number I’d like and I said No1. They said, ‘You can’t have that because that’s what the champion carries,’ and I said that I knew that because I’d watched motor sport. They gave me No6 as that was the next one available and I used that throughout my karting career.” An early sign of Plato’s enormous self-belief, of which we will  come across plenty.

Self-confidence that wasn’t misplaced, either, as young Plato started winning races and the net widened to include national events. “I’m an only child and karting became the family thing. Karting wasn’t a cheap sport back in the early ’80s, but it was affordable. We didn’t go on family holidays abroad because I’d have rather had a new set of tyres than a skiing holiday. The camaraderie around the sport was fantastic with families mucking in together and a wonderful friendly atmosphere. Not that the competition wasn’t intense and liable to result in flare-ups. Once Johnny Herbert, who was a bit older than me but we were friends – as were his parents Bob and Jane with my mum and dad – had a massive set-to with his dad. We were watching it kick-off when Johnny picked up this massive spanner and chucked it at his old man. It missed Bob and impaled itself in the side of their caravan.

“We didn’t go on family holidays. I’d rather have had a set of tyres”

“You learn a lot from karting. I don’t think it would be possible to be successful in motor sport today if you hadn’t got a proper karting career behind you. It teaches you how to race, it teaches you about the emotional roller-coaster that is motor sport and it teaches you how to lose.

“In karting your gun is permanently loaded and the trigger half pulled for every second of every lap because when an opportunity arises you’ve got to be ready to go for it. This has really helped me in touring cars because when there’s a sniff of an opportunity you’ve got to take it on. On the other hand it’s been a hindrance in many ways because I’m quite fiery on the track and I’ve never been one to say, ‘Look, I’m second here, look at the big picture.’ It’s cost me multiple championships but it’s also given me a lot of wins.”

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Today, if you are still in karting at the age of 20 something has gone seriously wrong with your career, but back in the ’80s it was the norm. By 1987, when Plato was that age, he started to look at cars. Presumably that would mean Formula Ford and then along the familiar pathway of Formula 3 and onto Formula 1? “Actually, no,” he replies, “because I’d got used to sticky rubber and grip levels in karting and didn’t want to go to the wingless and slip and slide of Formula Ford. I saw it as a backwards step. Formula Renault was rolled out in 1989 on a small scale with the first full season starting in 1990. I went to the launch of the series at Williams in Didcot and was keen. Not least because Renault UK were fully behind it.”

During 1989 Plato went to school; specifically the Winfield Racing School in France whose alumni included Jacques Laffite and Alain Prost. A far cry from the modern corporate driving experience today, Winfield actually taught students how to win and staged a race at the end of each course. Sponsored by the French fuel company, it was called Pilote Elf and with it came a massive leg-up into single-seater racing.

“I was tipped to win the Pilote Elf award and was in the final. To be honest, I didn’t give it everything I could have. I’d done a deal with Renault UK [which we’ll come to] and also, winning it would have meant moving to France. It’s not that I blew it,  I just could have done better. Christophe Tinseau won the award and went onto French Formula Renault. Mike Knight, who ran the Winfield school, berates me to this day for not giving it everything because  I should have won it, and had I done so that should have taken me to Formula 1. I’m sure of it. Whether I would have been the right character for F1 is a different question because I know what I’m like.”

Between finishing with karting and joining the grid for the first year of UK Formula Renault, Plato had been working for his father starting up various businesses and also feverishly scouting around  for money to further his racing career. Finally, with some budget collected, they approached Formula Renault teams. “We went with Bowman Racing, which turned out to be a disaster as they didn’t have the backing that they’d promised. That ended in court and us spending money on lawyers that we could ill afford to lose. Then we went to Cuda Motorsport and that didn’t work either because the Reynard chassis turned out to be no good. We’d learned our lesson about contracts with the previous bunch and triggered our out clause. We then went to Manor Motorsport and guess what? Won first time out.”

The 1991 Formula Renault UK season was a massive duel between Plato with Manor Motorsport and Bobby Verdon-Roe driving for Fortec, both using Scholar-prepared engines. “I lost out to Bobby in the championship because one of our engines was accidentally delivered to Fortec and when they stripped it down they found a technical irregularity. That got messy and it ended up in court. We lost and were penalised so Bobby won the championship.

“I’d got to know Ralph Firman from Van Diemen in Formula Renault and at the end of 1991 I went to his house at 6am and banged on his door. His wife, Angie, answered and said, ‘What on earth are you doing? It’s the middle of the night and Ralph’s in bed.’ Anyway, Ralph got up and I pleaded with him to give me a drive in Formula 3 in 1992 in his new carbon-fibre chassis car. I did half a season with Ralph until he realised that we’d been fibbing about how much money we had, which was actually half of half a budget.”

For 1993 Plato migrated to Vauxhall Lotus with Martin Donnelly which turned out to be a disaster. And then nothing. “In 1994 and 1995 I did no racing at all, just instructing at schools. I thought this was it, career over. At the time I was sharing a flat in Northampton with a racer called Simon Harrison. Simon had started racing a touring car with Peugeot and I thought if he can do that so can I. What I had been doing during 1995 was helping Janspeed to test the Nissan BTCC car that they were running. The late Kieth O’dor (son of Janspeed founder Jan O’dor) was my first cousin. I’d been hoping that this would lead to a drive and then Nissan pulled out.

“In 1994 and 1995 I did no racing at all. I thought: career over”

“I’d also managed to find a bit of money by tapping up one of my students at the racing school. Strictly forbidden but we all did it. Then I got a call from Tim Jackson, head of public relations at Renault UK and a huge supporter of motor sport. He told me be about the upcoming Renault Sport Spider championship and suggested that  I do it. One-make championship? I said,  ‘No way.’ But Jackson said, ‘Hear me out. The winner of the series gets a test in  the Williams-run Laguna BTCC car and I can tell you that current driver Will Hoy will not be re-signed so there’ll be a spare seat.’”

The Renault Sport Spider series went well for Plato with 11 wins out of 14 starts, a performance only eclipsed by Andy Priaulx in 1999 who won all 13 out of 13 races and was on pole for all of them. “I’d said to myself during the season that if this doesn’t come off then you’ve had it. It’s too hard and you’ve now gone totally sideways away from Formula 1.

“But I’d won the series and done my test in the Laguna touring car which had gone well. Tim Jackson, who’d become a really strong mentor and without whom we wouldn’t be sitting here now, said, ‘I’ve spoken to Frank [Williams], all good. Leave it to me.’ Next thing I get a letter from Frank saying it’s a no but that he’d like me to come and see him so that he could explain in person why it’s a no. Which I did. He explained that I’d never had a chance of getting the drive because they needed someone with a profile. I went away, called Tim, who said he’d see if he could get me a privateer drive.

“About two weeks later I woke up really raging and decided I’d go and bloody see Frank and have it out. Security let me in because they recognised me from before. ‘I’ve come to see Frank,’ I said to reception and they said fine, take a seat. Then scary Nicola, who was Frank’s PA and gatekeeper came down the stairs and said, ‘What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just  do this.” And then she let out a gem, I think on purpose, by saying that, anyway, Frank wasn’t coming in until lunchtime. So I went and sat in the car park for three hours, eyes glued to the security gate, and smoked myself to oblivion. At last Frank’s car came in and I was out the car sprinting across the car park in my suit with a briefcase with nothing in it. I practically slammed into the side of his car. Frank was in the front seat and just stared up at me while I wondered what on earth I’d done. I pleaded with Frank to give me five minutes; he said he was too busy; I begged some more and he eventually agreed. I think actually that scary Nicola had tipped him off that I was waiting in the car park and what was likely to happen.

“I woke up raging and decided I’d see Frank Williams and have it out”

“After 45 minutes of sitting outside his office I was called in. Frank said, ‘Right, what can I do for you?’ and I just poured my heart out, told him that he didn’t want some failed F1 driver in his team just because the guy had a profile and please, please give me a test, let me have a chance. I can do the job. I was even banging on his desk. ‘OK, thanks for that,’ said Frank, ‘thanks for coming but I’ve got to get on.’

“I walked out of the building totally content. If that wasn’t good enough then nothing would be. A few hours later I get a call from Tim Jackson. ‘Great move JP, that’s gone down well. Everyone in the F1 team is talking about it.’ I then got a call from Frank who told me that they’d like to test me and that I’d be getting a call from the team. Two weeks later I was at a test at Snetterton against Gianni Morbidelli and Jean-Christophe Boullion, who was Williams’ F1 test driver. Level ground, same equipment, same time in the car.

“I’d already tested the Laguna and knew I was quick. Also, I’d done a lot of testing in the Nissan BTCC car so in fact I came to the test with an advantage over the other two. Those front-wheel-drive touring cars were weird to drive with colossal oversteer. You had to make them oversteer to get front grip but it was something you had to get used to.

“The test went well and several days later I’m called in to see Frank. Scary Nicola is now all smiles and can’t be friendly enough. And Frank offers me the drive with a three-year contract. I said I’d need to take it away for a lawyer to read but Frank said, ‘Jason, it’s a three-year contract, what’s the problem?’ The money went up each year to £250,000 in the third year and I did a bit of negotiating to get the last year raised a bit as I reasoned that if I was still there after two seasons – they could terminate my contract at the end of each year – then I was worth it. Frank did raise the amount a bit but then I pushed my luck and asked about a bonus for winning. ‘Jason,’ Frank leaned forward and whispered, ‘that’s what we’re f***ing paying you to do.’”

“Frank did raise the amount but then I asked about a bonus for winning…”

And so started the career of one of touring car racing’s most colourful, successful and at times controversial drivers. His time with Renault was followed by stints with Vauxhall, SEAT, Chevrolet, MG and Subaru. Championships were won in 2001 and 2010 with five second and six third places backing up Plato’s comment that if he’d been less focused on individual wins he’d have won more championships.

Plato retired from the BTCC at the end of 2022 but says he is not done with racing. “I love historic racing which for me is almost the antithesis of my professional career. I want to do well of course, but there’s no peering over data at midnight trying to work out where the missing tenths have gone. It’s fun and with a great atmosphere.”

Then there’s Le Mans. It’s still on Jason Plato’s hit list and what he sets his mind on, he usually achieves. Often by wedging his foot in the door.