Only two race meetings remain in this year’s phenomenal Legends Cars Championship season, beginning with a welcome return to Oulton Park International Circuit this coming Saturday, 16th August, for a fast-paced single day event as part of US Autoshow.

Just a week removed from the spectacular finale of the 2025 Elite Cup at Croft in North Yorkshire, where the 5/8 scale pocket rockets raced as part of the British Touring Car Championship support package, a stellar grid of Legends Cars is preparing to make its return to Cheshire for the second time this year.

As a one-day event, round 10 will feature just three races but each of them could be absolutely crucial in the destiny of the overall title. Tyler Read (Weedon) who stormed to the Elite Cup crown at Croft with a sensational weekend, taking four wins from the six races contested there, also has a very healthy advantage at the top of the Legends Cars Championship.

Read will arrive at Oulton Park some 325 points ahead of closest rival Will Gibson (Farnborough), the defending two-time Legends Cars Champion, with Oli Schlup (Cuckfield) another 120 points adrift of Gibson. Read’s huge points haul last time out at Croft gave a major boost to his chances of lifting this year’s overall crown, to add to his richly deserved Elite Cup crown which is so fresh in the memory.

This Saturday there will be a total of 600 points up for grabs, 200 for a win, 185 for second place, 170 points for third and then reducing by 10 points per position down to 18th place. When the Legends were at Oulton over Spring Bank Holiday weekend, racing as support to the British GT Championship, both Read and Schlup won races – the latter taking a double to lead the standings at that stage.

Behind the top three, 2023 Elite Cup Champion Connor Mills (Upminster) is next up and will be hungry to turn around the misfortune which seriously impacted the trip to Croft, damage sustained in qualifying forcing him to miss two of the races – and slipping 540 points off the series lead which he previously held.

Chris Needham (Altrincham), for whom Oulton will be very much a home event, is fifth in the championship and another of the lead competitors who claimed a race win during the previous visit to the picturesque parkland venue. Rounding out the top six is Jack Parker (Wolverhampton), last year’s Elite Cup winner, who can never be discounted despite quite a luckless season to date.

In addition to the overall Championship, there are class battles equally fiercely contested. In the Masters Class, for drivers over the age of 40, Peter Barrable (Dublin) is in the box seat and brings strong momentum to Oulton having almost claimed an outright win at Croft on his way to sealing the Elite Cup Masters crown. He leads former overall title winner Stephen Treherne (Islington).

Like fellow Irishman Barrable, Owen Lawlor (Dublin) is a 2025 champion in Legends Cars after winning the Elite Cup Rookie class crown in North Yorkshire and he has an advantage of more than 500 points over his nearest Rookie challenger in the overall standings, David Bonser (Tamworth).

Meanwhile, in the battle for Team Car entries – cars which are shared by two or more drivers over the course of a campaign – the No.11 #TwoMater entry is 270 points ahead with a total of nine races to go this season.

Most cars this year are running the new MT09 water-cooled Yamaha motorcycle engine, but of those competitors who have been retaining the air-cooled Yamaha engine Nick Price (March) leads the way some distance clear. That said, last time out he switched to a different car with the POB Racing squad for his first experience of the water-cooled powerplant.

Phil Cooper – Legends Cars Championship Owner:
“It only feels like the blink of an eye since we were at Croft celebrating the conclusion of this year’s Elite Cup and congratulating Tyler [Read], the new champion. It’s great to be going back to Oulton Park for the second time this year, an outstanding circuit which delivered plenty of action when we were there with British GT back in May.

“Tyler’s excellent weekend at Croft has enabled him to put some space between himself and his main challengers like Will [Gibson] and Oli [Schlup], and even though the weekend will be a single day event for a change, there are still 600 points available. There is still a lot of racing to play out before the Championship finale at Snetterton next month, and I know Oulton will be incredible.”

The track action at Oulton Park on Saturday, 16th August, will begin with Legends Cars qualifying practice at 08.30 ahead of Heat One of the day at 10.25. Heat Two is scheduled to follow at 13.25 with the round 10 Final taking place at 16.20.

Provisional 2025 Legends Cars Championship Points (after Rd9)
1st Tyler Read, 4160pts; 2nd Will Gibson, 3835pts; 3rd Oli Schlup, 3715pts; 4th Connor Mills, 3620pts; 5th Chris Needham, 3560pts; 6th Jack Parker, 3140pts