Image: Top Gear

It appears the final loose ends of the fracas debacle have been tied up. First off, the BBC has announced the host who will replace Jeremy Clarkson on the hit automotive show.

BBC Radio 2 host Chris Evans will take over the empty seat on the series. To some Top Gear fans that name might sound familiar, as Evans has been featured as the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car before, and holds the sixth fastest Power Lap time in the Suzuki Liana. Additionally, he’s also the owner of a vintage Ferrari California Spyder that James May once pleaded his way into a test drive of in a segment on the show.

Image: Telegraph UK

While it’s easy to dismiss any replacement for the outspoken Clarkson as a mis-step, the BBC’s decision to bring Evans in is a wise one. He’s a genuine car guy and his lengthy experience on-air (with the BBC no less) means that if anyone is qualified to attempt to fill those shoes, it’s him.

“I’m thrilled, Top Gear is my favorite program of all time,” he told TopGear.com. “Created by a host of brilliant minds who love cars and understand how to make the massively complicated come across as fun, devil-may-care and effortless. When in fact, of course, it’s anything but and that’s the genius of Top Gear’s global success,” I promise I will do everything I possibly can to respect what has gone on before and take the show forward.”

The BBC has also confirmed the air date of the final Clarkson-era Top Gear special as June 28th. The long-run episode cobbles together footage from the last two episodes, which had their challenge segments already completed before Clarkson’s brawl with a show producer, but lack the in-studio interview and news segments they’d normally include.

We’re told Clarkson briefly returned to the BBC to record a voice-over for the finale, which marks the end of an era that took the show from relative obscurity to, at times, the most watched television program on the face of the Earth.