Jelley into the top ten after strong points haul

STEPHEN Jelley had a successful trip to Knockhill in the British Touring Car Championship, leaving with three top-eight finishes to move into the top ten of the drivers’ standings.

Having enjoyed strong visits to the 1.3-mile circuit in previous years, the Leicester-based Team BMW driver was hoping to continue his good upswing in results.

Jelley started well, qualifying fifth, just over a tenth of a second off the front row and just 0.377 seconds off pole position.

In the opening race, he had a quiet run to the flag, gaining fourth as Adam Morgan was unable to take the start.

From there on, he followed West Surrey Racing stablemate Colin Turkington, fending off the attentions of George Gamble behind and making it a BMW show, with the manufacturer claiming four of the top five places.

In the second race, Jelley had some bad luck which sent him down several positions.

Defending well to withstand the pressure of local racer Gordon Shedden in the first two thirds of the race, as he went into Clark corner his rear tyres locked up and sent him wide, allowing Shedden past.

He was then in the sights of Rory Butcher who found his way past two laps later, taking George Gamble with him and relegating Jelley to eighth.

He had a technical problem which hampered his progress in race three, having gained two places on the opening lap, but found his hybrid system overheating as Shedden regained a position.

After a few laps of cooling off, Jelley was able to make use of it again to catch up with the Scot, but wasn’t able to move back ahead, finishing seventh.

Jelley, below, said: “I did all right, we’ve had three strong pointscoring finishes, we’ve moved up to tenth in the championship, and we’ve scored more than other crews in the teams’ championship.”

He and Team BMW will be back in British Touring Car Championship action at Snetterton, in Norfolk, on August 13 and 14 for rounds 19, 20, and 21.