Jelley wins chaotic race three

Stephen Jelley took his second career victory in the same day as team mate Colin Turkington finished top of the championship contenders.

With title contenders Fabrizio Giovanardi not scoring, and Jason Plato not finishing, Turkington now leads the championship by 13 points going into the Brands Hatch Grand Prix finale.

Tom Chilton started from pole after being drawn for the reverse grid, but although the Focus has more pace than before the mid-season break – it wasn’t able to keep VX Racing’s Andrew Jordan, hungry for his first win, behind nor Jelley, who has been on the pace all weekend.

The title contenders all sat behind this battle, with Plato working his way up the order, but whilst Jelley was dicing with Jordan for the lead, Turkington and Plato got caught up in the melee – with Plato being collected by his RML team mate James Nash. The resulting damage to his car put him into the pits, and Plato would recover to finish almost a lap down in 12th, all but ending his title hopes.

Turkington now recovering, ended up in a frenetic battle with Fabrizio Giovanardi, and a now quite touring car savvy Johnny Herbert. After some light contact manouvering, Turkington emerged victorious, and went on to finish fourth.

Giovanardi suffered damage, and began falling back through the field, being pipped in the last corner by the Vauxhall Astra of Martin Johnson.

Turkington’s lead has now actually extended coming out of Rockingham, leading with 249 points from Giovanardi with 236. Jason Plato remains third and so it is still theoretically possible for Plato to win, but only with terrible performances from the Team RAC & VX Racing drivers at the season ender at the Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch in October