Triple Eight are confident the work carried out over the winter on their MG6 GT will bear fruit at the second BTCC meeting of the season at Donington Park.

The car showed pace in the hands of double champion Jason Plato at Brands Hatch, with a second and third place his reward for a weekend which had promised even greater success.

But there was a surprising lack of joy for Sam Tordoff, one of the stars of 2013 in his rookie year, who couldn’t advance beyond the lower reaches of the top 10.

Both drivers are confident the fast sweeps of Donington will play to the strengths of the MG, which took its maiden pole in the hands of Plato on its first visit to the circuit in 2012.

Plato said: “Everyone is motivated after Brands. The team is confident coming into this weekend and the new aero package and dampers will come into effect more here; the faster circuits like Donington and Thruxton should see us get better and better. The championship is looking great this year and I’m looking forward to another competitive weekend.”

Tordoff added: “Donington is a very different circuit to Brands and it should suit our car a lot better; we’re heading there with some optimism. I think the field will be spaced out a lot more, but with the field that we have in the series this year, there won’t be any easy weekends.

“I want to be at the front and regularly on the podium, so Donington is important for us; we need to bag some solid points this weekend to get back in the fight for the championship and take the challenge to the BMWs and Hondas.”

Team principal Ian Harrison expects the weekend to give a more representative picture of the 2014 field, which will grow to the promised 31 cars this weekend with the return of Dan Welch’s Proton Gen-2.

He said: “Donington is a proper circuit and one that we believe will show the true performance of the 2014 contenders, after the slow and medium speed corners of the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.

“You’ve got corners here which are arguably some of the best in motorsport. We want to be at the sharp end of the grid in qualifying and hopefully challenging for podiums in the races. It would be great to head to Thruxton off the back of a positive weekend for both drivers.”