Parker lands Legends title amid a racetrack wrangle

A highly-charged and dramatic final race of the campaign at Knockhill on Sunday ended 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 have expected the 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 provisionally winning the Elite Cup by five points instead from Read.

However, as there are ongoing judicial investigations relating to the Knockhill race meeting, all results from the final Elite Cup weekend remain provisional.

But Parker said: “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.”