Plato plots BTCC return as team owner

British Touring Car Championship wins record holder Jason Plato plans to return to the series in 2026 as a team owner.

The 57-year-old, who won 97 BTCC races over a 26-year span in the series spanning 1997 to 2022, is planning a two-car team to be known as Jason Plato Motorsport.

Hard details are thin on the ground, with Plato refusing to divulge any information on manufacturer, who will be the car builder or who the drivers will be.

“I can’t tell you a great deal but I’m now a team owner, and will be on the grid next year with two cars,” said Plato.

“We’re quite a bit down the road. From the floor upwards we will have the best in the business, and there will be people out there who will be really upset.

“Everything sits under me. I won’t get involved in the day-to-day running of it. I’ll be running the marketing department and bringing in the money.

“I’m as well known for that element as I am for what I’ve done in the car.”

Plato wants to highlight men’s mental health issues through the venture.

“I retired at the end of 2022 and throughout my career, at a very young age in karting, I realised that emotion is the enemy, certainly as a driver. And you become really adept at blocking it all out,” he said. “Did I enjoy it? No. I’m working and I’m here to do a job.

“I misunderstood how it would affect me, and in the space of six weeks from Brands Hatch [his final race weekend] it hurt a lot. It was my identity.

“In a six-week period Fifth Gear [which Plato presented] pulled the plug, so that was a loss of income, a lot of investments went tits up and also my marriage ended. It’s been three hard, dreadful years.

“My good friend Ross Brawn reached out and said, ‘What can we do?’ Ross put me in touch with some great people. That was almost the kickstart to get things happening. I’m back – I’ve got my mojo back.

“The most important lesson I learned is that I’m incredibly guarded and I’m a bloke, but blokes don’t talk about things like that. We talk about beer and tits and cars; we don’t speak about personal stuff with our mates.”

Jason Plato, Vauxhall

Photo by: Jeff Bloxham / Motorsport Images

In order to be on the grid, Plato’s team will need to acquire two of the BTCC’s TOCA TBL entrants’ licences.

“They would have to apply like everyone else does by the end of November,” TOCA supremo Alan Gow told Autosport.

“He’d have the join the queue. If there are some vacancies in the TBLs, and if they’re properly funded, they would get them.

“I don’t see it as being a problem, but we’ve got that limit of 24 cars [with 22 currently on the grid].”