Plato leads MG return to BTCCposted in BTCC25 | 01 | 2012

MG WILL MAKE A return to the British Touring Car Championship this season, with double champ Jason Plato leading the marque's new assault.

The three-year programme, which also sees Andy Neate drive the second car, will run under the MG KX Momentum Racing banner.

The NGTC-specification cars, which will run the Toca engine this year, will be prepared by Triple Eight Race Engineering, which scored over 100 BTCC wins when it ran the works Vauxhall squad.

"It's really exciting to be involved in a brand-new all-British team," Plato, who has already taken BTCC victories for Renault, Vauxhall, SEAT, and Chevrolet, said, "and it's brilliant the iconic name of MG will be back on track.

"I think it's going to be fantastic and it's great for British motorsport." MG's BTCC return was also welcomed by the brand's sales and marketing director, Guy Jones.

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"We are delighted the new MG6 will be seen by millions of fans in Britain and beyond," he said. "This continues the famous sporting lineage of the brand."

And understandably BTCC series boss Alan Gow welcomed the return of MG which, although now Chinese-owned, will use the five-door MG6 GT designed and engineered in the UK.

“MG is one of motoring’s truly evocative names so its BTCC campaign will, I’m sure, really capture the public’s imagination," Gow said.

"This high-profile return to the forefront of competition in the BTCC is also certain to prove highly effective in terms of marketing for MG and all of its partners, as well as delivering some great results for them on the track.”

MG's last BTCC win came in 2006, when Colin Turkington scored two victories in a West Surrey Racing-run MG ZS.

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Jim McGill