Legends Cars Championship Media Release –
| • Dramatic last race sees Jack Parker provisionally win title by 5pts • Separate incidents for Parker and Will Gibson open door for Tyler Read • Rd6 Final win for Read looks to be enough, but P17 for Parker seals it • Peter Barrable wins Masters Cup, Eric Boulton wins Rookie crown |
Jack Parker (Wolverhampton) is the provisional 2024 Legends Cars Elite Cup Champion following a truly unpredictable and captivating weekend at Knockhill – a highly-charged and dramatic final race of the campaign on Sunday, 11th August, ending with Parker winning the title by five points. Going into the last race of the British Touring Car Championship-supporting Elite Cup with an advantage of 65 points over chief rival Will Gibson (Camberley), and 175 points ahead of Tyler Read (Weedon), nobody could’ve expected the unbelievable drama which unfolded live on ITV4 and ITVX. Read delivered a storming drive from the back row of the grid to claim the day two Final victory and, it appeared, the crown. After Parker sustained contact and damage on lap nine, he limped to the pits and rejoined to finish in 18th a lap down – seemingly giving Read the title by five points. But in the final results, Parker was classified as 17th – with another driver a lap down not actually running at the chequered flag – and so the situation flipped, with Parker gaining an additional 10 points as a result and so provisionally winning the Elite Cup by five points instead from Read. Parker sandwiched a luckless retirement in Heat Two on Saturday, 10th August, with two terrific wins in Heat One and the Final on day one. He also added a third win, his seventh of the Elite Cup season, in Heat One on day two. The other race winners in Scotland were Oli Schlup (Cuckfield), who took the Heat Two spoils on Saturday, and Gibson who won Heat Two on Sunday. In the class battles, Eric Boulton (Grantham) wins his first title in Legends with the Rookie crown, even though he didn’t race at Knockhill – the same being true for the No.44 car which wasn’t in action but had already done enough to win the Team Car title. In the Masters Class battle, Peter Barrable (Dublin) is the Elite Cup Masters Champion and wins the Gerard McCosh Napoleon Award. It is important to note, as there are ongoing judicial investigations relating to the Knockhill race meeting all results from the final Elite Cup weekend remain provisional. Parker’s points advantage more than halved on day one despite two wins No sooner had the Heat One action begun on Saturday, the race was red flagged due to a tangle on the run to McIntyres. When the race was re-started over 10 laps, Peter Barrable managed to get to the front from the second row and led until lap four when Parker made his way by. Leading for the duration, he claimed his eighth win of the year and fifth in the Elite Cup from the impressive Barrable, Read and Gibson. At the flag, Read was just a couple of tenths shy of Barrable but pipped Gibson by 0.005 seconds in a true photo finish. Schlup was fifth, Andy Bird (Calne) sixth. Heat Two couldn’t have been more different for Parker, a multi-car tangle in the pack at the first turn leading to damage which triggered a pit visit and retirement. Following the necessary Safety Car period, racing resumed on lap four with Schlup – who started sixth – leading from Luke Simmons (Lingfield), pole-starter Nick Bridgeman (Baldock) and Read. Simmons moved into the lead on lap five and a sensational battle with Schlup developed, the pair trading first place multiple times and serving up a terrific showcase. Simmons headed the way during the second half but on lap 10 Schlup moved through once more, as Read in third made his presence felt. Then, on lap 11, Simmons’ hopes evaporated after a tangle put him through the gravel. Schlup went on to win on lap 12 by just under a couple of tenths of a second from Gibson, who charged through the order impressively, while Mark Beaty (Gosforth) made his first appearance on the podium with a terrific third. Bridgeman was the top Masters runner in an excellent fourth, Read took fifth, Bird sixth. Simmons had to settle for a vexing 14th after the win had been so close. Team Car runner, and series returnee, Kieran Beaty (Hexham) led away from pole in the round five Final before Stephen Treherne (Islington) took the lead on lap two – ahead of a Safety Car period. At the resumption on lap five Treherne continued to lead, before Simmons made his move to take the lead on lap seven, but Treherne swiftly hit back. Simmons responded again, the Heat Two disappointment still fresh in the mind, and the pair continued their scrap – but track limits time penalties for each meant they would finish fifth and sixth, Treherne from Simmons. Parker, from mid-pack, won on the road anyway to recover vital points, with Schlup, Gibson and Bird all storming from the back to take second, third and fourth. Elite Cup title decided by the smallest of margins in Scotland James Newbery (Burgess Hill) held the early lead of Heat One on Sunday from second on the balloted grid, but Mark Beaty wasted no time in moving to the front where a terrific battle developed with Treherne over the next few laps. Parker, who started sixth, didn’t take long to weave his way into the podium battle and he took the lead on lap six with a very bold move on the outside at Turn One. He was able to build a small gap but over the last couple of laps Read pressed and momentarily nosed ahead at the hairpin on lap nine. Parker saw the move coming and duly nipped back ahead on the exit, winning his third race of the weekend from the impressive Read and Beaty. Treherne took fourth but a penalty dropped him back, so Bird, Robert Barrable and Gibson completed the top six. Simmons lined-up on the front row for Heat Two, shown live on ITV4 and through ITVX, and surged into the early lead as a fast-starting Gibson moved up to second and Nick Price (March) slotted in to third. Gibson made his first move to lead into Turn One on lap two, but Simmons hit back at the end of the tour. Gibson then dived past at the hairpin the next time around to lead once again. As the race entered its second half the top four began to close up and a superb battle developed between Gibson, Simmons, Robert Barrable and Schlup. The latter sliced through to second on lap seven and with nothing to split the quartet lap after lap, it all came down to the sprint to the flag. Gibson managed to hold on to win by 0.074 seconds from Schlup, Barrable and Simmons – a mere 0.166 seconds separating all four. Read and Treherne completed the top six finishers, Read storming from 17th, with Elite Cup points leader Parker taking a valuable seventh from 19th on the grid. Nothing could prepare the racegoers and ITV4 viewers for the round six Final which was packed with unpredictability. Chris Dewey (Wisbech) made the early running and opened a lead of 3.4 seconds inside three laps, but he then started to be caught and on lap seven Bird took first and pulled clear. At this point Parker was 15th and carrying damage, after being hit on lap four at McIntyres, Gibson was 11th and Read had moved into the podium battle. It then got worse for title rivals Parker and Gibson, the former pitting at the end of lap nine before re-emerging with his badly damaged car and contact on lap 11 pitching Gibson into multiple spins in the gravel. Read successfully challenged Bird for the lead on the 12th and final tour, when Bird lost some momentum on the gravel thrown onto the circuit the lap prior, and won the race by just 0.028 seconds with Peter Barrable third from Bridgeman, Robert Barrable and Treherne. Gibson recovered to finish 15th while 17th, albeit a lap down, was enough for Parker to provisionally snatch the title. Jack Parker – Provisional Elite Cup Champion Rd9 Heat One, Rd9 Final and Rd10 Heat One Winner: “We’re all so overjoyed to win the title, it’s been a difficult weekend and an emotional one as well with ups and downs. Taking three wins obviously helped, we tried to be consistent but there some things out of our control like the contact in the last race which caused a bent axle and we popped two tyres as well. As I was tootling round I could see Tyler [Read] on the big TV screens battling for the lead – I thought that was it. We’re all absolutely over the moon, it’s amazing to win.” Oli Schlup – Rd9 Heat Two Winner: “After the Safety Car we were leading and it was just about trying to hold everybody off, we had Luke [Simmons] there, Tyler Read was there and then Will [Gibson] at the end – and everyone was trying to have a go, trying to get past. Yellow flags at the final corner helped me hold my position, the car was perfect.” Will Gibson – Rd10 Heat Two Winner: “That was hard work, the slipstream here is so big. I just shook it up a little bit, it’s nice to get the car on the top step. That’s every single live [TV] race we’ve managed to win this year. It’s great for our sponsors to get in front of the TV, the fans here are incredible too. We can run two or three wide in the Legends, there’s a lot of respect between the drivers and we all want to put on a good show.” Tyler Read – Rd10 Final Winner: “What a race! Starting from last I did not expect that, especially here at such a tight and technical track. Andy [Bird] was gone, I didn’t think it was possible to catch him and I really can’t believe it after the day we had on Saturday.” Rounds 11 and 12 of the Legends Cars Championship season will take place four weeks from now, over the weekend 7th/8th September at Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk. Provisional 2024 Legends Cars Elite Cup Points CHAMPION Jack Parker, 2520pts; 2nd Tyler Read, 2515pts; 3rd Will Gibson, 2475pts; 4th Andy Bird, 2310pts; 5th Oli Schlup, 2065pts; 6th Robert Barrable, 1975pts Provisional 2024 Legends Cars Championship Points (after Rd10) 1st Will Gibson, 4130pts; 2nd Jack Parker, 3965pts; 3rd Andy Bird, 3725pts 4th Tyler Read, 3640pts; 5th Oli Schlup, 3595pts; 6th Robert Barrable, 3470pts |
(George McNeill photo)
 is the provisional 2024 Legends Cars Elite Cup Champion following a truly unpredictable and captivating weekend at Knockhill – a highly-charged and dramatic final race of the campaign on Sunday, 11th August, ending with Parker winning the title by five points. ){kind=link}