Autocar
Never say never again: 97-time winner rips up the rulebook as he returns to the sport as a team owner "We want to create the finest racing team ever for a national championship. We want to take the British Touring Car Championship by storm and be incredibly successful. We want to dominate and blow everyone's doors off – and that's what we will do." Yes, in case you haven't noticed, Jason Plato is back in the BTCC . And he's being, well, very 'Jason Plato' about it. The two-time champion, who won a record 97 races as the overblown character fans both loved and hated (often at the same time), retired from driving at the end of 2022 and consistently made it very clear, in his preferred brand of colourful language, that he had zero interest in making the transition to team ownership. Yet now, as another BTCC season kicks off at Donington Park this Sunday, there he will be on the pitwall, chief of bright and shiny Plato Racing. It's the big story of 2026. "I genuinely didn't want to do this," he insists, dragging deeply on a cigarette when Autocar finally pins him down in the smoking hut outside his new team's HQ in Wellingborough at the end of a chaotic, celebrity-strewn team launch (close friends Sir Chris Hoy and Ross Brawn among the guests). "But I'm doing it my way, which is different from the way most people do it." That's a rare understatement from Plato. From a seed of an idea last summer – "we didn't even have a bank account last August" – the 58-year-old has assembled a crack team of experienced BTCC old hands to help him. It includes team manager Malcolm Swetnam and design engineer Paul Ridgway, who will run a pair of Mercedes-AMG A35 saloons built by respected British motorsport powerhouse RML – the first of many points of contention about the Plato return, given that RML is also a key supplier of parts to all the teams on the BTCC grid. It's fair to say there's no false modesty about Plato Racing. A podium first time out at Donington this Sunday is the stated aim, and the team has detonated on impact as it lands in the paddock. So why is Plato doing it if, as he makes clear, he never really wanted to? In short, you could say because he had to. Plato has been strikingly open about his mental health struggles since retiring from the sport that defined his whole existence. In short order, along with his old racing life, he also lost his TV work (presenter of Channel 5's Fifth Gear), a sum of money in investments that went wrong and his marriage. Rock bottom included two attempts to take his own life, he says, and he credits the support of friends such as Brawn for pulling him out of the darkness. Now, returning to the sport he loves as a team owner has given him a new lease of life – in an uncomfortably stark and literal sense. "But we're late," he says of the start-from-scratch project that only really began to take some form in October last year. "There's no one solely to blame. And guess what? I've never run a team before. Yes, I've got some experienced people, but it's probably fair to say they have never been involved with a team like this. The stuff we are ordering and doing, it's off the scale. We've assembled a great team and have kicked the others hard in the nuts because we've nicked all of their best staff... I'm sure there are going to be some fireworks." Now he's committed to it, this season will be fascinating if only to see how Plato handles the transition from racing driver to team principal. "I have to respect the business, it's not about me anymore," he states. "Regardless of what any driver tells you, they don't give a f*** about anyone else but themselves. It's a selfish, blunt, narcissistic game. That's ingrained in me, because that's what I've been all my life. But now I can't be like that. If I do something wrong I could hurt people here. So I have to think about things differently." RML has leased one of its units to Plato Racing – the same one out of which it ran Plato to the second of his titles in 2010, in a Chevrolet Cruze . Company CEO Paul Dickinson is all too aware of the fine line RML is walking. Under the BTCC's tightly regulated New Generation Touring Car (NGTC) rulebook, it supplies all the suspension parts for the entire grid: wishbones, pushrods, rockers, uprights, steering systems and the front and rear subframes that house them. Now RML is also building a complete car, just as it used to with the Chevys and back in the 1990s with Vauxhall and Nissan . "Let's be clear, the other teams are worried, as I would be if I was them," admits Dickinson, who needed to work hard to convince BTCC boss Alan Gow that Plato wouldn't be gaining an unfair advantage by commissioning RML to create its pair of A-Class Mercs. "But this is why we're not running the cars," he adds, emphasising this is a supplier relationship: yes, RML built the cars, but it has now handed them over to Plato's team to race them. "At events we will be there in our RML shirts in the RML truck selling parts. We won't be in the Plato truck optimising his car." As we're speaking, the team is shaking down one of the cars for the first time. "You'll notice we are not there," says Dickinson. Still, paranoia is ingrained in racing paddocks, and it won't help that Plato Racing lives directly next door to RML. "We know this car will be scrutinised to the nth degree more than any other on the grid," says Dickinson. "That's just part of the Jason story." The NGTC regulations have been around a long time, since 2011, yet this is the first time RML has built a car to the rulebook. "The key is to take RML back to the forefront of motorsport, not just sat in the shadows supplying the parts," says Dickinson. "This is the first of hopefully many racing cars we will be building in the future. It will get us back on the map. You never know where Plato Racing will go in the future or where we might go with OEMs. There are a few Le Mans trophies in our building." As for the cars themselves, the Mercedes-AMG A35 saloon was chosen primarily for its shape: the base model is said to have the best drag coefficient on the grid. Meanwhile, RML says it has benefited from zero help from Mercedes directly. Plato sourced three road car shells – two of which had water damage from a river and a lake. RML dipped, took apart and scanned the shells to create its own CAD drawings, then rebuilt the cars on roll-cages via CFD modelling to create a slippery thoroughbred racing car with a likeness of the original Mercedes road car. Under the skin, there's a lot of carbonfibre. It looks more like an old DTM car than what we are used to seeing on the BTCC grid. Dickinson says he spotted plenty of well-thumbed copies of TOCA's BTCC rulebook among his team during the design and build process, complete with highlighter pen marks. But is there really scope for any car builder, even one with the tech know-how of RML, to find a new edge from such a mature ruleset? Adam Airey, head of vehicle engineering, pauses before he answers. "It's very close in the BTCC," he says, eventually. "We might not find much of an edge, but I like to think we have the tools to ensure the cars are always optimised, whatever the circuit." On the driver front, Dan Rowbottom has transferred across from BTCC superteam Alliance Racing, bringing his backing from Cataclean. The 37-year-old is much more than a simple driver signing – he is also a founding partner in the new team. Quitting the reigning Napa-backed Ford Focus champion squad for an all-new car and outfit sounds like a risk, especially after winning three times during a strong 2025 campaign. But he says stepping out from the shadow of old team-mates Ash Sutton and Dan Cammish was essential if he ever wants to make a serious challenge for a BTCC title. "It was clear there wasn't a requirement for me to do more than I was doing, because they had a driver [Sutton] who could challenge for the championship," says 'Rowbo' of his former employer. "Which was fine, I accepted that. But I had conversations with the management saying where I needed to be. I'm getting older and I want to challenge for a championship before I retire. The response was 'we are quite happy where you are'. They did a fantastic job, for me and commercially for Cataclean. But it was time to move on." Rowbottom has recruited childhood friend and old karting rival Adam Morgan as his team-mate. Morgan, 37, is an 11-time race winner and has been a BTCC mainstay since 2012. He's also a much more placid character than Rowbottom, who is a chip off the old Plato block in terms of personality. "I'll leave Jason and Dan to ruffle the feathers – I'll just take the race wins," grins Morgan, who says he could have stayed put in the Excelr8 Hyundai as team-mate to reigning champion Tom Ingram. "I've been around long enough to know that unless you are in the right place at the right time, you're just making up the numbers – and I'm not here to do that. I believe I can win the championship with Plato Racing." Rowbottom feels the same way, and while he clearly wants to beat Morgan, their friendship means they should work well together. "To be able to be a part of Jason's revival is a massive opportunity for everyone involved," says Rowbottom. "It's great for the paddock and the press. He will definitely cause some controversy, but that's why we love him. The team is set up to disrupt the BTCC. I've grown up with this championship and fell in love with it when I was 14. We have fantastic drivers and teams, but it's missing a bit of magic. It needs a kick up the arse. I firmly believe Jason will do that." Both smile when Autocar asks them how they expect to find Plato as a team boss. The man himself has a glint in his eye when asked the same question. He was given his big break by Frank Williams and Patrick Head in 1997 when he was recruited to the Williams-run Renault team. He knows what the highest standards look like. "You know me," he says. "I don't sugarcoat anything, and that has got me into lots of hot water before. But I'm ultimately a really fair bloke and I demand excellence, and if that's not given through lack of effort I go f****** apeshit. But that's not going to happen, because everyone has bought into this. We're at the start of something really amazing." What else is new in the BTCC? Saloons are back in vogue in the BTCC. Alliance Racing switches from the Ford Focus hatchback to the Titanium saloon in search of aero gains, as Ash Sutton and Dan Cammish work to depose Tom Ingram as champion. Alongside Sam Osborne is Lewis Selby, who steps up from Minis to replace Dan Rowbottom. 2024 champion Jake Hill has quit the BTCC, so Laser Tools Racing and Mark Blundell switch their support to Speedworks' Toyota Corollas for Gordon Shedden and Árón Taylor-Smith. Audis will return to the BTCC grid this year. Power Maxed Racing, which lost its Vauxhalls to a devastating fire at its HQ last year, has built an all-new Audi A3 . The highly rated Mikey Doble will lead its charge. The biggest change in format is the introduction of a qualifying race on Saturday afternoons to decide the first grid. Three races remain on Sundays. This is the second season the BTCC is using 100% renewable fuel and turbo power boost, but this time weight has been reduced by a sizeable 55kg. 2026 BTCC Calendar Month Date Venue April 18/19 Donington Park May 9/10 Brands Hatch Indy May 23/24 Snetterton June 6/7 Oulton Park July 25/26 Thruxton August 8/9 Knockhill August 22/23 Donington Park GP September 5/6 Croft September 26/27 Silverstone October 11/12 Brands Hatch GP
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