- published: 26 Apr 2016
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Victoria "Vicki" Butler-Henderson (born (1972-02-16)16 February 1972) is a racing driver and television presenter.
Butler-Henderson was born into a racing family. Her grandfather used to race a Frazer Nash at Brooklands, her father was in the British karting team and her brother Charlie is a racing driver. She has an older sister, Charlotte, who does not race. Butler-Henderson grew up on the family farm, and was educated at the independent Perse School for Girls in Cambridge.
Butler-Henderson started racing karts at the age of 12, being overtaken by David Coulthard in her first race. She holds a car race licence as well as a power boat racing licence. After supplementing her income as a racing instructor at Silverstone Circuit, she also undertook a dual career in journalism where she worked on numerous British motoring magazines including Auto Express, What Car? and Performance Car. She was the assistant launch editor and mechanic in Max Power magazine, referred to simply as "VBH."
In 1997, she joined the BBC's flagship motoring show Top Gear. After the BBC cancelled the original show in 2001, Butler-Henderson, along with co-presenters Quentin Willson and Tiff Needell, moved to Five in 2002 to continue their work on a show now called Fifth Gear. In 2004, she presented ITV's coverage of the British Touring Car Championship, in which her brother Charlie briefly competed in 2004; and from February 2006 the ten-part series Wrecks To Riches for Discovery Real Time.
Timothy Jason Plato (born 14 October 1967 in Oxford) is a British racing car driver currently competing in the BTCC for MG KX Momentum Racing. He is a two time BTCC champion having previously won the series in 2001 when driving for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet. He has finished in the top 3 in the championship 9 times and holds the record for the most overall race wins in the BTCC. He is also a presenter on motoring television series Fifth Gear.
Plato, who was born in Oxford, England was educated at The King's School, Tynemouth.
After success in karting he raced in Formula Three and Formula Renault. In 1996 he entered the Renault Spider championship, making a dominant title win.
In 1997 he gained the second drive in the Williams-Renault BTCC team. He made a sensational start in the Renault Laguna, taking pole for his first 3 races, and ultimately winning 2 races as a rookie, taking 3rd in the championship won by team-mate Alain Menu. He was 5th in the series in each of the next two years
Fifth Gear (formerly 5th Gear) is a motoring television magazine show from the United Kingdom. Originally shown on Channel 5, the show is currently presented by Tiff Needell, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Jason Plato, Jonny Smith and Ben Collins. Fifth Gear's rival show is BBC Two's Top Gear.
Fifth Gear was first broadcast in 2002 as a continuation of the original incarnation of the BBC show Top Gear, which was cancelled in 2001 due to low ratings. Top Gear was relaunched later that year; Channel 5 originally wanted to carry on using the Top Gear name, but the BBC refused. Several of Top Gear's ex-presenters, including Quentin Willson, Tiff Needell, and Vicki Butler-Henderson were hired by Channel 5 to present Fifth Gear.
Repeats of Fifth Gear also started being broadcast on UKTV channel, Dave in April 2008 and later on Discovery Turbo.
The first seven series consisted of a 23 minute programme, not including approximately 7 minutes of adverts. The eighth series returned in the autumn of 2005 in a longer format of 45 minutes, and the ninth series (which went to a 13-week run) was increased to a one hour airtime slot (approximately 46 minutes excluding adverts). For series 17, the show has reverted to the original format of 23 minutes, which including adverts, takes the show to half an hour.