Jason Plato meets SG3

British Touring Car Champion Jason Plato travelled to St Gregory the Great School in Oxford on Wednesday 21st May 2008 to meet the SG3 Team.The 5th Gear presenter viewed a presentation by the Team comprising of their development work, hopes for the race and displayed their GRAFTERS short-film entry.

Jason had been left speechless, later reporting in his article in ‘The Sun’ “I have to admit, I was completely blown away by their professionalism and enthusiasm. They all did a fantastic presentation.”

Then he took on the challenge we had all been waiting for. We traveled to the playground where we had set up our own track, and were ready for a race.
We had prepared our cars for Jason to take on our drivers, and once the flag went down, the race was on.

What we didn’t know is that, added to his motoring history, he was also a dab hand at racing IC cars. After 30minutes on track, we then awarded the trophies, where Killian Conway Mahar finished 3rd, Harry smith took second, Jason Plato edged ahead to collect the 1st Position trophy.

“The only time I stayed behind after school hours was because I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t – or at least I was under severe suspicion, they rarely caught me red handed!
From what I saw at St. Gregory The Great, the future of motorsport is in good hands.”
-Jason Plato – TH E SUN

To follow our star studied event, we then had to face the press, as we had a photo shoot for The Oxford Mail, gave interviews for BBC 1’s South Today and ITV’s Thames Valley News.

The event has later featured in The Sun, on SEAT Sport’s website, and the website of the BTCC. On the day we also received a letter from the Archbishop Vincent Nichols congratulating the Team.

Following the great success of the day, Jason has invited the Team to join him at this years BTCC meeting at Silverstone, and is aiming to attend SG3’s Official launch and hopes to support the Team on race day at Silverstone.

Below is a clip from ITV's Thames Valley News featuring Jason's visit.

Transcript from Jason Plato's column in The Sun newspaper;

Proof of Youth

I recently went to St Gregory The Great School in Oxford to visit its Design & Technology department.

The guys and girls are aged 11 to 14 and compete in the F1 in School competition.

They’ve also designed and built some petrol-engined radio controlled cars – and they invited me down for a racing challenge.

I have to admit, I was completely blown away by their professionalism and enthusiasm. They all did a fantastic presentation, one-by-one explaining what they did in the team.

They even had a head of Human Resources – they’re better organised than we are!

The only time I stayed behind after school hours was because I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t – or at least I was under severe suspicion, they rarely caught me red handed!

But these pupils would have stayed in school all night if they could, racing these fantastic little machines that they’d created themselves.

The teachers are brilliant and it’s clear that they have such a good relationship with the pupils – it must be very rewarding to have a job where you can really influence the lives and careers of such bright young people.

From what I saw at St. Gregory The Great, the future of motorsport is in good hands.

They’ll be racing at Silverstone in the schools national final on June 12, and if I’m free I’ll be there to support them.

 

Find out more about Jason's visit on the St Gregory Formula School web site.