Dan Rowbottom staged a race three fightback to clinch a top-six finish on what proved to be an otherwise frustrating visit to Oulton Park for Cataclean Plato Racing in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
Keen to carry some momentum into the series’ annual summer break, the Mercedes-AMG A35squad had to dig deep and get their elbows out on Sunday as Rowbottom and team-mate Adam Morgan valiantly fought to put points on the board.
The weekend began at the Cheshire circuit - which is home turf for title sponsors Cataclean - with Morgan enjoying a stellar run in the Qualifying Race to finish seventh, while Rowbottom was a few spots further back after getting caught up in a host of midfield battles.
Sadly that would be as good as it got for Morgan as he was forced to retire from a top-six position in race one due to a technical issue that was out of his or the teams control. The Lancastrian then took the pain of the hard tyre in race two in the hope of progressing up the order in race three.
With the much faster soft tyre bolted on his car, the 37-year-old had hoped to end the weekend with a flurry but instead sustained race-ending damage at Old Hall after Aron Taylor-Smith lost control of his car and slammed into the rear quarter of Morgan’s machine.
On the other side of the garage, Rowbottom opted to play the long game by getting the hard tyre out of the way in race one, which then enabled him to charge forward and finish on the cusp of the top ten in race two.
Having the benefit of the soft tyre to use again for race three, the multiple race winner delivered a storming drive to cut his way through the field and ultimately snare sixth place at the chequered flag.
Jason Plato, Cataclean Plato Racing Team Principal: “Overall it’s been a really frustrating weekend. Although we’ve got some areas that we need to work on ourselves, I think it’s glaringly obvious where we are lacking when it comes to performance at the moment.
“Dan did well to chip away over the course of race day and probably sixth was the best we could have achieved given the pace of those ahead of us. I feel really sorry for Adam because he’s failed to score any points through no fault of his own.
“This summer break we’ve got is welcomed as it allows us to really dig into everything we’ve learnt so far. We’ll look to go testing at some point too and hopefully come Thruxton we’ll be in a much stronger position to fight for honours.”
Dan Rowbottom, #32 Cataclean Plato Racing: “I’m happy to have ended the weekend with a top-six finish. After the challenging qualifying we had on Saturday, reverse engineering race day was always the plan and I think we did the best we could.
“From a chassis perspective I’m feeling positive about the steps we’ve made over the past few events. In that last race the car felt like it was on its toes a bit more and that’s ultimately what you want from a front-wheel-drive touring car.
“We seem to be struggling for grunt in a straight line currently so we need to dive into that and understand why. It may be something on our side or it may be we need to work with our engine partners to unlock a bit more speed. Thankfully we’ve got the break to do all of that.”
Adam Morgan, #33 Cataclean Plato Racing: “From my side of the garage it has been a weekend to forget. We were in the mix on Saturday and was on course for a good result in race one before we had to stop the car.
“That race one retirement was the beginning of the end almost because we were always going to struggle on the hard tyre and then there is nothing you can do when a car fires across the track at you. We’ve got the summer break to get our heads down and bounce back at Thruxton.”
The 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season continues in six weeks’ time at Thruxton on July 25-26.