Plato poised for world action.

British Touring Car Championship fan favourite Jason Plato is poised to show his talents on the World stage as he looks to take part in selected World Touring Car Championship rounds.

Life looks pretty rosy at the moment for the Brit, with a new three-year contract with SEAT in the bag, a fianc?e, a wedding to plan and then there's likelihood that the SEAT Sport UK team should be right at the thick end of the action when the 2005 British Touring Car Championship kicks off in April. Add to all of this there's a strong probability that Plato will also be displaying his racecraft overseas in 2005.

"There's desire from all sides of the SEAT camp that they want me to go and do all the races that don't clash with the British series to help with the Spanish team." Plato told Crash.net "There's five races, so there's the possibility and we're trying to work it out at the moment to see how it would work logisitically, so, yeah, there's a good possibility that I'll do some world events this year."

Plato is the focal point of SEAT's BTCC campaign this year, but his new contract stretches beyond that. Does the ideal of competing to be a world champion appeal?

"Without a doubt, without a doubt," says Plato. "I've just re-signed for another three years with SEAT, whether that means next year I go to the world touring cars I don't know, they'll put me where they want to put me."

Plato did, however, have the possibility of heading to the WTCC for the 2005 season, before deciding the British series was a better place for him to be. "I had opportunities to go WTCC last year and then, looking at everything, the right decision was for me to stay here," he explains.

"I have a TV career I need to look after, I have a racing career I need to look after," continues Plato. "We started on a mission together, myself and SEAT, and I won't leave the UK until I win, and even then I might not, it's a great series we've got, the world championship still has to prove itself, it doesn't have the right sort of TV exposure at the moment, that's not to say it won't, but for me at the moment BTCC is the better option."