Jason Plato believes his Power M🦩axed 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 regular basis for the 2020 season.

The t𒁏wo-time champion capped 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 pos𒈔ition for the series legend.

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

"I had so much pace 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 staဣrted to get a little vibration on the right fronജt so I thought ‘I’ll take it off the boil’. I had another 0.5s a lap in hand."

Plato says his team have made good progress with Vauxhall Astra's chassis during the second half of the year, but ❀maintains running the TOCA engiಞne has cost them dearly in straight-line speed against the factory Hondas and BMWs.

"The main thing is the second half of thꦐe 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 need to get some more investment over the winter and develop our own engine because the TOCA unit just isn’t ꧃good enough.

“The team is rꦉeady. 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 𝕴TOCA unit is just not good enough I’m afraid.

"If y💃ou watch the BMW or Honda, 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 g🅰ot an engine."

Although Po💛wer Maxed Racing are competing in the BTCC as a manufacturer team, Plato says 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 dragging some more sponsors, ge🍃tting some more investment and trying to engage a bit more with Vauxhall a🦩nd get them a bit more aligned," said Plato.

"The early signs are great a♛nd we’ve shoꦿwn what we can do. All exciting for the winter.

"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 in the right direction and we need to step the game up a bit.

"We need to ideally produce a n🧔ew chassis for next year. The Astra has had a facelift so there’s💙 potential to use that.

"We want to work closely with a manufac🍃turer and whilst we are working close, we want to work closer."