Steve Whitelegg (Bury) has leap-frogged MRF Legends Cars National Championship rival Ben Power (Guilsfield, Powys) in the battle for the end-of-season British Touring Car Championship prize test, thanks to a very impressive outing at Rockingham last time out.

Alongside the outright title battle, this year the MRF Legends Cars competitors are also fighting it out for the outstanding prize of a run in Handy Motorsport’s race-winning BTCC Toyota Avensis and it is Whitelegg who has moved into a slim three-point lead.

With points accrued on the basis of results, sportsmanship and all-round presentation, the WTBS Motorsport racer was rewarded for strong car and garage appearance at Rockingham three weeks ago as well as a sparkling performance on track.

Overturning a grid-penalty in the day one Heats – a result of surpassing his engine allocation for the year – before going on to secure a pair of superb victories on day two, Whitelegg is now leading the way in the prize battle ahead of the season finale at Brands Hatch in a fortnight.

Power, who has 14 race victories so far this season, is both second in the contest to win the coveted BTCC test and also second in the outright standings. It looks likely he or Whitelegg will be joining BTCC race winner Rob Austin for a mouth-watering touring car test outing in November.

Third in the prize test battle is Jack Parker (Wolverhampton), consistently one of the quickest and most competitive drivers in MRF Legends Cars but also a competitor who has had more than his share of misfortune this season. With one event to go, he is 19 points shy of the top of the table.

Nathan Anthony (Horley), who pilots the only Se-Van in Legends racing anywhere in the world, holds fourth and is three points shy of Parker with championship leader John Mickel (Horsham), a 14-time winner this season, and Miles Rudman (Sutton Coldfield) close behind in fifth and sixth. Rudman and Will Gibson (Camberley) were actually judged to be the highest scoring drivers after Rockingham.

In addition to the touring car test prize, the second and third placed drivers in the table will have the opportunity to enjoy passenger laps – and undoubtedly glean key information and insight of life in the BTCC – from Handy Motorsport ace Austin so there is plenty to fight for on the final weekend of the season.

“With only two weeks to go until we get to Brands Hatch for the season finale, everything is incredibly close in terms of the overall championship and the BTCC prize battle – there’s so much at stake over the last six races”, said Phil Cooper, MRF Legends Cars National Championship owner.

“With how evenly the top drivers have performed this year, it does look increasingly likely either Steve

[Whitelegg] or Ben [Power] will win the prize test with Handy Motorsport but, as is always the way in Legends Cars, anything can happen. With the points allocated across a variety of different categories, a couple of bad races for one driver at Brands really could shake things up still.”

The eighth and final race meeting of the MRF Legends Cars National Championship will take place two weeks from now, on 4th/5th November, at Brands Hatch in Kent alongside the last round of the British Truck Racing Association Championship.