Chequered flag for TPR and Bentley

Team Parker Racing’s (TPR) Bentley GT race programme has officially taken the chequered flag – after five successful years running both generations of the Continental GT3.

Bentley Motorsport recently announced the ending of its factory GT programme after seven seasons as the marque evaluates its future racing options.

The crack race outfit, run by BDC Members and brothers Stuart and Andy Parker, signed off its relationship with Bentley by claiming fifth place overall, and fourth in the GT3 Pro-Am class, in last weekend’s Gulf 12 Hours in Bahrain – the British team’s debut in the event.

The undoubted highlight of TPR’s time with Bentley was winning the coveted British GT Championship title in 2017 with drivers Rick Parfitt Jnr (another BDC Member) and Seb Morris, the two-car team claiming four wins during the campaign (three for Parfitt/Morris and one for Loggie/Macleod).

TPR’s debut season with the GT3 in 2016, running Parfitt and Morris, yielded an encouraging third place in the British GT series standings.

A busy TPR supplemented its ongoing British GT programme by also fielding GT3s in the Blancpain GT Series (now GT World Challenge Europe), in both the Sprint and Endurance Cups. It upgraded to the second-generation Continental GT3 for 2019. 

Last year saw further success as Nick Jones and Scott Malvern claimed a British GT victory at Donington, while the highly respected team also ran the Bentley Motorsport Academy programme in Europe.
 
The Parker family boasts strong links with the Bentley name, a relationship now spanning five generations, with Stuart and Andy representing the fourth generation. Their grandfather, Reg, was the first in the family to own a Bentley; his son, Geoff, inherited his father’s passion for the Bentley brand and, in turn, passed this on to his two boys, Stuart and Andy.

All four of the Parker clan have been loyal Members of the BDC: Reg belonged for 39 years, until 1999, while Geoff celebrated 50 years in 2018. 

Looking back on the past half-decade’s “fantastic adventure” with Bentley, Stuart said: “We started the relationship back in 2016, and it continued a relationship between the Parker family and Bentley that goes right back to my grandfather, Albert.
 
“Winning the British GT title in 2017 was a real highlight for us all. It has been an honour to represent the Bentley brand, and we’ve had some fantastic results and some wonderful memories along the way.”

Further announcements on TPR’s 2021 racing plans will be announced in due course.