Jason Plato believes his Power Maxed Racing outfit are ready to make the next step following an encouraging British Touring Car Championship campaign, but says the Vauxhall squad must develop its own engine to fight for wins on a more reg🅷ular basis for the 2020 season.

The two-time champion ca𝔍pped off his🍷 first season with PMR in superb fashion after taking a dominant 97th BTCC victory during the final race of the year at the Brands Hatch title decider.

Plato started the finale from fifth and quickly ﷽romped into a healthy lead but later took the car 'off the boil' midway through the race before crossing the line 0.9s ahead of Rory Butcher.

The 52-year old's first BTCC win in over two years consolidated a final🏅 championship reckoning of seventh position for the series legend.

"I’m dead pleased. We’ve beওen threatening all year. We should’ve won another two or three races this year, had I not made parking error𝓀s or the balls rolled slightly differently," said Plato.

"I had so much p⛦ace and I had the car exactly where I wanted it. I could’ve started tenth and won that race.

"My car was mega. I reckon eight laps from home I started to get a little vibration on the right front so I thought ‘I’ll take it off the boil’. I had another 🥀0.5s a﷽ lap in hand."

Pl😼ato says his team have made good progress with Vauxhall Astra's chassis during the second half of the year, but maintains running the TOCA engine has cost them dearly in straight-line speed agai♏nst the factory Hondas and BMWs.

"The main thing 🗹is the second half of the year we’ve been chipping away at the car. My car was dynamite in that last race," the Vauxhall racer continued.

"We’ve got the chassis working. We’re still s**t in a straight-line so we neeᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚd to get some more investment over the winter and develop our own engine because the TOCA unit just isn’t good enough.

“The teꦯam is ready. We can sharpen it all up. If we can get a bit more brass at the door we can come out punching and kicking next year and try and win again.

"It’s clear we have to make our own engine. If we want to do what the others are doing we have to do it. The TOCA unit is just not g💦ood enough I’m afraid.

"If you watch the BMW ꦿor Hond﷽a, when they get behind another car that’s got tyre problems, they’re straight past.

"We need to be able to do that and you can only do that if you’ve got an en🌳gine."

Although Power Maxed Racin🍰g are competing in the BTCC as a manufacturer team, Plato say🥂s the outfit will be working on becoming more ‘closely aligned’ with Vauxhall as they seek to fight for further wins.

"We want to work on draggi𒀰ng some more sponsor💯s, getting some more investment and trying to engage a bit more with Vauxhall and get them a bit more aligned," said Plato.

"The early signs are great and w🐈e’ve shown what we can do. All exciting for the ൲winter.

"Part of ❀my strategy wherever I go is to try and bring a team and lift it up. The basics are right here. The people are really good. Everyone’s pulling iꦏn the right direction and we need to step the game up a bit.

"We need to ideally pr🍎oduce a new chassis for next year. The Astra has had a facelift so there’s potential to use that.

"We want to work closelyও with a manufacturer and whilst we are working close, we wa💖nt to work closer."