The de🎃bate over tactics in the BTCC rages on after Jason Plato again manipulated the finishing positions o🌌f race one to gain a better grid slot for race two.

While Anthony Reid was out front collecting his first win of the season for MG, Plato was involved in a battle of his own with the Team Sureterm Astra of Stefan Hodgetts to s♔ee who could take tenth, Plato 'losing out' at the end by taking the chequered flag first for ninth -๊ a result still good enough for the front row of the race two grid.

With Hodgetts then hitting problems off the line at the star💝t of the race, Plato was able to get ahead of the fie🐻ld, the unballasted Toledo Cupra leading home Rob Huff for a 1-2 finish for the SEAT Sport UK team.

After the race, Plato told ltxcn.top that h💃e was only being professional in doing 🧔what he does in race one.

"We sacrifice the first race for knowledge, to take weight off the car and get a good grid slot for the second race," he said. "I don't know why the other teams don't do it, it's not rocket science. We don't have the pace of the Vauxhalls to w💜in the first race, so why put ourselves on 🍒the back foot for the rest of the weekend?

"SEAT have got a lot of exposure on TV. Me and Rob are professional drivers and we're employed by a manufacturer. The reason they are in motorsport is to build a brand, to build the imaܫge of that brand and to get exposure and that's exactly what we are doing. We are just being professional."

However WSR driver Reid doesn't totally agree with Plato and his views that the SEAT couldn't beat the V🧜auxhall in a straight ༒race - especially after Plato led home a second 1-2 finish for the team in race three.

Reid may have taken the race one win but it l𒐪eft him starting tenth on the grid for race two. But would he rather have had the win or gone for pole?

"It's i𒁃nteresting, there are lots of different angles there," Reid said. "When their [SEAT] car wasn't so competitive it was clear Plato was doing to showboat by taking tenth place to get pole for the second race, so I suppose from a publicity angle that's great. From a championship point of view, th🦂at strategy didn't look too clever.

"Now the car is competitive it starts to make a lot more sense, bas🔴ically because the top teams like WSR, VX Racing and SEAT are all very close - it's very tight at the sharp end. There is a manufacturers points system to try and create winners, but now it's cau𝄹sing other problems as we are all capable of winning.

"Maybe now is 🦩the time to ꦯstart looking more at strategy."

VX Racing's James Thompson was another to give h𒆙is views oꦍn the idea of strategy after the meeting.

Although he admits that throwing away a good result in the first race to capitalise🌱 in the seco𒀰nd does appear to work, it's not the right choice for everybody.

"SEAT's strategy of throwing the first race to capitalise on the second and third obviously works," he said, "but Yvan and I can't get involved in that because of t🌜he championship situation."

Never m🌸ind betting on a winner, who wants to put money on the battle for tenth iꦇn race one at Knockhill in a fortnight...