“The team is designed and set up to disrupt – we are going to disrupt the British Touring Car Championship because we have to. I’ve grown up watching this championship, I fell in love with it when I was 14, and I believe it needs a kick up the arse. We’ve got fantastic drivers, fantastic teams, and it just needs a bit of magic. Jason will bring that.”
Now that’s a mission assertion and a half from Dan Rowbottom of the newly fashioned Plato Racing crew, set to make its debut at April’s Donington Park BTCC opener. The no-longer-bearded Midlander – simply mild stubble now – is companion in an operation named after his pal: two-time BTCC champion and collection wins document holder Jason Plato. Two Mercedes-AMG A35 Saloons will likely be fielded; one for ‘Rowbo’, one for Adam Morgan – fifth and sixth respectively in the 2025 factors.
“I’m in charge of HR – it’s a minefield!” exclaims Plato, and the thoughts boggles about this revelation from a man who at all times confused that he by no means wished to set up a crew. “I don’t sugarcoat anything, and that’s got me into lots of hot water before. But I’m ultimately a really fair bloke. I demand excellence and, if that’s not given through lack of effort, I go apeshit. But that’s not going to happen because everyone’s bought into it. They all know they’re in on the birth of something really amazing.”
We’re speaking at the Plato Racing launch, the place quite a few dignitaries and BTCC faces previous and current are assembled. Among them is Plato’s pal Ross Brawn, whom he credit with doing a lot to pull him out of his post-racing-career despair.
And then there’s RML… Touring automotive leviathan; provider of spec subframe, suspension and steering methods to the BTCC; Nineteen Nineties titles received as manufacturing unit Vauxhall and Nissan crew; and which guided Plato to his second crown, in 2010, with a Chevrolet Cruze. The Wellingborough firm has designed JP’s Mercedes weapons and, final September, Plato’s crew took the lease on an RML ‘storage base’ – Unit 2 – simply throughout the driveway. “I won my last championship from Bay 4 here,” Plato enthuses, “and took the SEAT deal here [in 2004].”
But this can be a ‘hell-freezes-over’ second. Plato’s fallout over 2011-12 with RML founder Ray Mallock is effectively documented. “I did bump into Ray in the toilets at the British Racing Drivers’ Club awards and he wanted to knock my brains out,” Plato chuckles sheepishly. “It didn’t take long for us to iron it out. I respect these people enormously – they’re the best in the business at designing cars and the engineering that they do.”
The new BTCC squad’s ‘head of HR’ Plato with Morgan (left) and Rowbottom (proper)
Photo by: Plato Racing Team RML
The first process was drying out the preliminary shell – from a water-damaged street automotive purchased for £7000 in early October. Then RML scanned the A35 throughout its phases of disassembly to create CAD fashions that couldn’t be acquired from Mercedes itself. It wasn’t till the new yr that Plato Racing had something identifiable as a race automotive. The outcome? “The output is f***ing extraordinary, and the design is beautiful,” raves Plato. “It’s a work of art.”
“The technology that we’ve had access to is unbelievable,” stresses Rowbottom. “I noticed it by each single model in digital kind in design. We’ve acquired correct crash buildings, we’ve innovated in phrases of driver security – we’ve acquired a correct cell we sit in to defend our legs. We’ve employed a very well-known automotive physique stylist.
“Once we’ve done all the aero, we’ve then made the bodywork look like a Mercedes with the aero that we wanted in it. So it looks like an OEM-built product. Touring cars over the past 10 years all look the same, right? Massive wide arches, everything square. We’ve got a really pretty car.”
“There’s been a sizeable delta in what a workers price range could be from once we began trying round at the finish of final yr, as a result of Cadillac F1 have blown the market by recruiting 650 individuals – they’re paying some individuals double what they’re value” Jason Plato
On the staffing facet, the crew has recruited been-there-seen-it-all veteran crew supervisor Malcolm Swetnam who, like Rowbottom, has crossed over from Alliance Racing. He’d already handed in his discover, intending to stay in Australia, but two days later got here the name from Plato…
Paul Ridgway, Rowbottom’s engineer since mid-2024 at Alliance, is on board as technical chief. Yet one other Alliance previous boy, number-one mechanic Dave Kelly, has jumped ship however in a non-race-weekend crew-chief position. Tom Hunt, who sorted ‘Rowbo’ at Team Dynamics in 2022 and ran Dan Lloyd to the Independents’ crown with Restart Racing final season, will engineer Morgan.
As far as the bulk are involved, Plato makes an fascinating level on the labour market: “There’s been a sizeable delta in what a staff budget would be from when we started looking around at the end of last year, because Cadillac F1 have blown the market by recruiting 650 people – they’re paying some people double what they’re worth!”
Alliance did a “fantastic job”, reckons Rowbottom, however he wanted to be able to pitch for a title
Photo by: JEP
Plato admits “it’s not operating efficiently in terms of spend at the moment, but that will change once we get more money in the door”. In this context, the necessary side is 37-year-old Rowbottom’s ongoing long-term backing from Cataclean: “They’re very concerned with the challenge. They’re actually behind me and wish to see the subsequent stage of my profession, which is problem for the title.
“Alliance Racing did a fantastic job for me. But it was clear to me that there wasn’t a requirement for me to do any more than I was doing. They have drivers who can challenge for the championship [Ash Sutton and Dan Cammish], which is fine, but you get to a point where you’ve got to move on. I’m getting older, I want to challenge for a championship before I retire, and the response I got back was ‘we’re quite happy with where you are’. Which is not really for me.”
Like Rowbottom, Morgan is coming off his most profitable season in phrases of championship place after spending 2025 with the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai squad. “We had an offer on the table – it was either going to be Excelr8 or finish,” he recounts. “I acquired a telephone name from Dan, and he stated, ‘Look, I don’t know what your plans are for subsequent yr. If you’ve not signed something, come down, have a look round.’
“Me and my dad got here down, had a tour with Jason and have been simply blown away. From the minute we acquired right here, seeing all the guys at RML, all the design work, all the funding, infrastructure – we have been identical to, ‘This is an opportunity that we can’t miss’. With it being a Mercedes, it’s linked to our household enterprise Ciceley Commercials [the Morgans’ Mercedes HGV dealership] – it simply made a lot sense for us.
“Commercially, this is what tipped it over the edge. The Hyundai is a championship winner. To leave that and come to a brand-new team is quite a big step. But knowing what these guys have done, the personnel they’ve employed to run these cars and design them, we took a leap of faith. I genuinely believe this car is going to be at the front from round one.”
Morgan and Rowbottom have recognized one another since they have been youngsters. “They’re a good family,” nods Rowbottom. “We met the Morgans in 1998 at a pissing-down Larkhall kart track. It’s really nice for my family as well. Like friends going racing, but with Jason at the helm, which is dangerous…”
Morgan and Rowbottom (right here at Knockhill final yr) have recognized one another since childhood
Photo by: JEP
They have been additionally team-mates in 2019, when BTCC rookie Rowbottom drove the second automotive from the Morgans’ Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes A-Class steady. Alongside these Plato Racing disruptors, in some ways Morgan is the very best foil: the amiable Lancastrian is fast, and one of the nicest blokes you’ll meet in the BTCC paddock.
“I’ll leave Jason and Dan to ruffle the feathers!” he grins. “I’ll just sit behind, take the points, take the wins.”
Coincidentally, it was Ridgway who designed the previous A-Class for Ciceley earlier than the 2014 season. Comparing it to RML’s work on the A35, Morgan declares it’s “chalk and cheese. An enormous quantity of technological advances with CFD and CAD. We simply did it with little drawings on fag packets like the previous days. This automotive is particular – it’s virtually too good to race. Put a canopy on and go away it.”
“We were invited up to M-Sport’s facility and I walked through the door and I was like, no way these guys can’t build an engine that can win a championship” Dan Rowbottom
Under the bonnet is the buyer TOCA engine constructed by M-Sport, regardless of RML’s renown on this space. “But we only had four months, remember,” factors out Rowbottom. “Very kindly we were invited up to M-Sport’s facility and I walked through the door and I was like, no way these guys can’t build an engine that can win a championship.”
For a challenge which, says Rowbottom, solely seeded “over a beer in July”, the feathers are actually being ruffled. Sniping? “We’ve had people seen in the car park taking photos when the workshop’s been open, all sorts of stuff,” laughs Plato. “That’s half of the recreation.
“I have to respect the business, it’s not just about me anymore. Regardless of what any driver tells you, they don’t give a stuff about anyone except themselves. It’s a really selfish, narcissistic game. That’s ingrained in me because I’ve been doing it all my life, but I can’t be like that now. I have to think about things differently. But I’m still going to be out there having a go.”
The pin has been pulled. Please stand at a secure distance.
Rowbottom cites “unbelievable” stage of expertise used to create “really pretty” Mercedes racer
Alliance Racing’s new look
Amid the hullabaloo over the entry of Plato Racing, there’s been so much of work happening at a longtime championship-winning crew to construct a brand new automotive for 2026. Except it’s not a totally new automotive.
Ever since Pete Osborne’s takeover of Motorbase Performance earlier than the 2021 season, by its new-for-2022 title sponsorship from NAPA Racing UK to its change in id in late 2023 to Alliance Racing, there had been strikes afoot to swap from the fourth-generation Ford Focus ST hatchback to a saloon. Now it has, in the kind of the Focus Titanium.
Most notably this was on the playing cards in late 2022, when the want was a rear-wheel-drive automotive to mirror the success achieved along with the Infiniti Q50 by Ash Sutton and engineer Antonio Carrozza of their days at BMR Racing.
Instead, Carrozza was tasked at the final minute with an entire revamp of the Focus ST for 2023: cue a season of domination however, since then, a gradual decline in competitiveness (albeit not sufficient to forestall Sutton ending third in 2024 and runner-up final yr), largely thanks to the hatch’s aerodynamic inefficiency.
“The saloon’s been the way we’ve been looking to go for the past four years,” explains Carrozza. “At the finish of 2021, I used to be effectively below manner with the design of the Jaguar XE. That all fell to items [when BMR folded].
Carrozza has been taking a look at a swap to the saloon bodyshape for years
Photo by: JEP
“After I started at Motorbase, at the end of 2022 we were trying to do the Audi saloon project; when that didn’t work we were looking at a Mercedes project. They didn’t come off, so we were chipping away at the Focus.”
As a massively profitable businessman in the logistics trade, Osborne has introduced his business savvy to British Touring Cars – his liaison with NAPA and others is testomony to that. But his sweet-talking of MG in 2025 to carry the producer again to the collection didn’t bear fruit.
The marque’s UK department was eager, however it seems that no one at its Chinese holding firm SAIC felt empowered to make the determination. With new BTCC rules for 2027 permitting in fashions not on sale in the UK, the Focus saloon was recognized, and a vote put by collection organiser TOCA to the groups resulted in Alliance being given dispensation to run the mannequin one yr early.
Carrozza describes the challenge as “essentially cut-and-shut – it’s the same as Dynamics with the Honda in 2014 [when that team switched to the Civic Tourer]. We’ve just reshelled the rear of the car. The actual rollcage is identical. We haven’t built complete new cars – it’s a modification of the existing car.”
The different new automotive in 2026 is, of course, Power Maxed Racing’s Audi A3. “I think that car’s going to be really good,” predicts Carrozza. “They’ve got a better handle on the front-wheel-drive car than they probably have credit for. The Vauxhall Astra was really good, so I think now that they’ve got a more aerodynamic shape, probably with a bit better downforce balance, that car will be one to watch out for.”
This article is one of many in the month-to-month Autosport journal. For extra premium content material, check out the May 2026 challenge and subscribe today.
Focus saloon – a mannequin that’s not on the market in the UK – is a “cut-and-shut” modification of the present racer
Photo by: JEP
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