MG rekindles racing heritage with return to Touring Cars
MG Motor UK is to return to motorsport to raise the profile of its latest model within a dynamic new audience.
The Birmingham-based firm is to enter the 2012 British Touring Car Championships with a modified version of its award-winning MG6 model.
And the Chinese-owned firm has signalled its intent by recruiting a strong team of drivers and support crew.
The all-new MG KX Momentum Racing team will run two MG6 GT cars, and these will be driven by double BTCC champion and Fifth Gear TV presenter Jason Plato and BTCC rising star Andy Neate.
The cars will be prepared by Triple Eight Race Engineering, one of the most successful constructors in touring car racing.
The venture has also attracted high profile sponsors including Tesco Fuels, through it Momentum 99 brand and KX energy drink.
MG KX Momentum Racing will debut at Brands Hatch on April 1 when the 2012 Dunlop MSA BTCC championship season gets under way.
The MG6 GT five-door fastback is the first all-new MG in 16 years. It is designed and engineered at MG Motor UK’s plant in Longbridge where final assembly also takes place.
Plato is the most successful driver in BTCC racing history with 68 career wins, with more fastest laps, pole and podium positions than any other driver in the history of the series. He is widely recognised as the face of British Touring Cars, as well as being a well-known and respected TV presenter and newly appointed Director of the British Racing Drivers Club.
He 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 the track.”
Guy Jones, MG Motor’s Sales & Marketing Director, said: “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.”
Triple Eight, headed by Ian Harrison, is based at Greatworth, just a few miles from the famous Silverstone race circuit. The company has more than 100 BTCC race wins to its credit.
