Plato with Brawn and (left) Jonathan Wheatley at Motor Sport's 100th anniversary celebration
Jonathan Bushell
British Touring Car Champion-turned-team boss Jason Plato has identified Motor Sport’s centenary celebration of 2024 as the fulcrum for his recovery from depression to set up his new project.
Plato scored 97 race wins during his BTCC career, which spanned 1997-2022, as well as claiming the title in ’01 and ’10. He endured a dark period in his life after hanging up his helmet, but has now returned at the helm of Plato Racing, which makes its debut at this weekend’s BTCC opener at Donington Park, running a pair of Mercedes A35 Saloons driven by Dan Rowbottom and Adam Morgan.
A documentary entitled Plato Racing: All or Nothing will be screened on ITV4 in the build-up to Sunday’s Donington action at 9.40am, and will then be available on ITVX. In it, Plato describes his battle with his mental health after walking away from racing.
“I underestimated the impact it would have, not having that competitive arena, not having that intensity,” he says. “To walk away, it’s a very tough thing.
“There were three other things that happened. The TV work dried up and my investments, sizeable chunks of money had gone pear-shaped, and also my wife wanted to end the marriage. And all those things happening in one go, it destroyed me, and I found myself in this horrible dark, dark place where I had never been in my life before.
“Every mirror in the house, I took them down, I couldn’t look at myself. I was ashamed of myself. I couldn’t control any of this stuff, and I had a proper breakdown. I even tried to end my life twice, believe it or not.
“The one key lesson I’ve learnt from from this is it’s OK to be a bit messed up, to not be in a good place. It happens to everybody at various stages of their life. But what isn’t OK is not to do anything about it.”
The dinner in July 2024, held by Motor Sport to celebrate 100 years of publication, took place at the Dorchester in London, and Plato’s friend Ross Brawn was there representing the Grand Prix Trust, the event’s charity partner.
“I did seek some help, and I was being bullied to go to a black-tie do,” says Plato. “It was a Motor Sport magazine centenary. And I decided, ‘Look, I just can’t do this, not going anywhere’, and actually I had a pretty enjoyable night. I bumped into a very dear friend of mine, Ross Brawn, who basically dropped everything and ran over, and we had a big hug and stuff, and he just wanted to find out how I was.”
Plato credits Brawn, who was instrumental in Michael Schumacher’s Formula 1 title successes with Benetton and Ferrari, and whose eponymous team claimed the crown with Jenson Button in 2009, as playing a big part in his recovery.
“Ross was probably my saviour actually,” he says. “He really got hold of me and said, ‘Come on JP, what are we going to do?’ And that gave me a focus: create the finest racing team that has ever done a national championship. We want to take the BTCC by storm and we want to be incredibly successful, we want to dominate. And that’s what we will do.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, help and support is available from Samaritans on 116 123 or samaritans.org
