Croft played host to the finale for the Legends Cars Elite Cup, with the racing as close and frenetic as ever, as Tyler Read emerged with the title after a quadruple victory.
Read’s weekend began in impressive style as he scored a strong victory in the first heat after taking the lead on lap three when he successfully managed to slipstream his way past Chris Needham into Tower.
With the grid order decided through a ballot, Read took the second heat victory as well, even though he started down in 15th. Steadily moving up through the field, Read timed his progress to perfection as he grabbed top spot on the final lap.
However, Will Gibson stopped Read’s onslaught when he emerged victorious in the reversed-grid final. Read could only manage fourth after starting from 20th, as Gibson clawed his way up from 17th to impressively take the chequered flag.
“Typical Legends, take your time and pace a little at the beginning,” explained Gibson of his path to victory. “Try to pick them off one at a time and, when you get to the front, it’s just utter chaos.”
Heat one on Sunday again went the way of Read. He was meant to line up eighth but there was a peculiar incident at the start of the race when polesitter Mike Schlup turned sharply left into Ross Marshall. Both cars smashed hard into the pitwall and were then immobile, so the red flags were shown and the race was restarted. Read, now sixth on the grid, took the lead at his favourite overtaking place of Tower and secured the win ahead of Gibson.
American driver Trevor Krouse upset the status quo when he took the spoils in the final heat of the weekend. Krouse, on his first time outing in the UK, executed a stunning move on the final lap heading into the Complex, powering all the way around the outside of Oli Schlup to snag the top spot on the podium.
The second final was a disaster for Gibson, who was an innocent victim of a first-corner incident and ended his championship hopes in the gravel. This meant Read took the title by default but stayed calm under pressure to win the final race of the day as well to banish memories of his narrow Elite Cup defeat at Knockhill last year.
Edwards finally gets first 2025 win after Mini track-limits confusion
Ovenden got to keep race-one win in the end, but Edwards was number one in the second bout
Photo by: JEP
The Mini Challenge competitors hit the halfway point of their respective campaigns at Croft and it was another weekend that did not follow the formbook with early-season dominator Jamie Osborne again failing to triumph.
Instead, it was Tom Ovenden who secured victory in the opener, after confusion regarding track-limits penalties. Polesitter Nathan Edwards had bogged down off the line with excessive wheelspin and quickly dropped to third on the run to the first corner, which allowed Ovenden and Osborne to lead the field.
“The start was completely all my fault,” explained Edwards after the race. “I’ve been getting good starts recently, so we’ll look back at that. Just a bit of wheelspin and a bit of a bog.”
However, it was clear that Edwards had the pace to challenge, and he managed to pick off Osborne on lap three. The Excelr8 driver then started pressuring his team-mate but, when Ovenden picked up a five-second penalty for abusing track limits, Edwards paced himself in second. Afterwards, Edwards was initially awarded the win, but Ovenden was later reinstated after all the track-limits penalties were rescinded.
Edwards fought back in the second encounter, however, and was able to take the win on track this time after managing to get the better of Osborne.
Initially, Osborne was out front as the NAPA Racing driver got a scorching start and comfortably slotted into the lead. Edwards kept the pressure on, however, and managed to slot into first heading into Clervaux on lap 11 of 15. Edwards controlled the race from then on to take the flag, but Osborne still enjoys a comfortable 38-point advantage over Ovenden – who was third in that race – at the head of the standings.
Martin closes to within just a point of Carrera Cup lead
Eden driver resisted Smith to catapult himself into title contention
Photo by: JEP
Will Martin chalked up a third victory of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB season at Croft, but the Eden Motorsport driver had to contend with a charging Sid Smith.
Having recovered lost ground after a poor start, Team Parker racer Smith began pressuring polesitter Martin by the middle of the opening race and ducked left and then right in his attempts to find a way past. But it was to no avail as Martin did just enough to triumph by 0.643 seconds.
“It seemed to be around the back section in the high-speed stuff,” said Smith of where his rival had the advantage. “I had a bit of an edge on him, but then through the first sector, he pulled a little bit on me, but we basically gained and lost throughout the whole lap.”
George Gamble took the spoils in the second race to finally register his first victory of the season. The reigning champion forcefully slipped past long-time leader Oliver White at the last corner to comfortably take the flag for Century Motorsport ahead of White’s Eden machine. Martin was third and has closed to within one point of leader Andrew Rackstraw, who only managed a best result of sixth in Yorkshire.
Gamble finally scored his first win of 2025 after a tricky start to his title defence
Photo by: JEP
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