Plato’s mountain road challenge

BTCC ace Jason Plato and British champion longboarder Pete Connolly took part in a dramatic time trial to launch the new Dunlop Sport Maxx RT2 tyre.

The challenge took place on a 2237-foot-high mountain road in Majorca and the pair were racing together at speeds of more than 60mph.

Connolly set a time on the 3km stretch without the car of 8 minutes 10.92 seconds before beating it by more than 11 seconds when using Plato’s Mercedes in front to create a slipstream.

Watch the challenge

Plato explained: “The route throws up many challenges for a driver, hairpin bends, steep drops and falling rocks.

“The issue with creating a slipstream is that by reducing the wind resistance, Pete was constantly catching me.

“As his speed quickly increased, I had a few split seconds to accelerate to avoid Pete hitting the back of the car.

“In this situation grip precision was crucial to the success of the time trial. We had to descend 900 feet on a mountain road where nothing could be left to chance.”