Share this article on LinkedIn Email

Jason Plato has joined MG for the marque's new assault on the British Touring Car Championship.

MG has announced a three-year programme in the series and has signed double champion Plato and Andy Neate to drive its MG6 GT cars for 2012. They will run under the MG KX Momentum Racing banner.

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

Plato, who has already taken BTCC victories for Renault, Vauxhall, SEAT, and Chevrolet, said: "It's really exciting to be involved in a brand-new all-British team and it's just brilliant that 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 Motor's sales and marketing director Guy Jones said: "We are delighted the new MG6 will be seen by millions of fans in Britain and beyond. This continues the famous sporting lineage of the brand."

Although MG is Chinese-owned, the five-door MG6 GT was designed and engineered in the UK.

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