Triple Eight to run MGs for Plato & Neate

Triple Eight Race Engineering have announced that Jason Plato will rejoin the team after a ten year absence, and will run a pair of MG6s built to the BTCC’s Next Generation Touring Car regulations.

The Oxfordshire team, which won the independent team and drivers’ titles last season, and ran the Vauxhall manufacturer entries from 1997 to 2009, have confirmed they’re back to being a manufacturer team again with Birmingham-based MG Motor, which is owned by the Chinese SAIC Group.

The team will run two MG6s under the name MG KX Momentum Racing , which are being built to Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) regulations.

The team have also confirmed that two-time BTCC champion Jason Plato will be rejoining the team. Plato last drove for Triple Eight when he won his first title in 2001, then with the Vauxhall Astra Coupé. Plato has driven for RML in ex-WTCC Chevrolets for the last three seasons, before that he was a works SEAT driver since the 2004 Championship.

MG’s last appearance in the BTCC was in 2008, when Jason Hughes ran the Team Kartworld Racing MG-ZS, a car which had been built by West Surrey Racing when it was the MG manufacturer team between 2001 and 2003.

Jason Plato will also have a new team-mate in Andy Neate for 2012 at Triple Eight. The 37-year-old will race for this third different team in three seasons, with former team Arena International Motorsport departing for the WTCC this year.

“We are delighted that the new MG6 will be seen by millions of fans in Britain and beyond and this continues the famous sporting lineage of the brand,” said Guy Jones, MG Motor’s Sales and Marketing Director to btcc.net.