JEREMY CLARKSON, the outspoken British presenter of the “Top Gear” motoring show, has been suspended by the BBC after he was involved in a “fracas” with a producer.

    Clarkson, who has generated both controversy and profits for Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster, was already on a final warning over accusations last year that he had used racist language while filming the show.

    “Following a fracas with a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation,” the broadcaster said in a statement Tuesday. “No one else has been suspended.”

    The BBC said “Top Gear,” which is aired in more than 200 countries, would not be broadcast Sunday.

    A friend of Prime Minister David Cameron, Clarkson became the popular face of “Top Gear” by mixing a passion for cars with blunt banter and swagger that offended, among others, environmental groups, mental health charities and cyclists.

    Clarkson was called before BBC bosses last year after a British newspaper reported he had been heard using the derogatory word for black people as he recited an old version of the rhyme “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe” to choose between cars in filming two years earlier. The 54-year-old presenter later apologized for any offence caused by the reports about the use of the word.

    He was back in hot water in October when the show sparked a diplomatic incident between Britain and Argentina, two countries that went to war in 1982.

    A “Top Gear” television crew was forced to flee Argentina after driving a Porsche 928 GT with the registration number H982 FKL — which some people suggested could refer to the Falklands conflict. (SD-Agencies)