Stephen Jelley happy to add to podium tally

Stephen Jelley said was pleased to secure a second BTCC podium in as many events at Knockhill, although he was quick to concede that a win “would have been nicer”.

The WSR driver went into the weekend on the back of a top three result at Oulton Park, but was on the back foot for race day after qualifying down in 14th spot – having admitted that he didn’t push as hard as he should have done after locking up on his first quick run.

An eleventh place finish in race of the weekend was followed by ninth in race two, and that was a result that then saw Jelley drawn on the reverse grid pole for race three.

Holding onto the lead when the final race kicked off, Jelley would remain out front despite being on the less favourable media tyre until Tom Ingram managed to dive down the inside into the hairpin to grab the position.

With Senna Proctor following the Hyundai through, Jelley would end up down in third spot although the results from the weekend mean he has now hit a personal best score in an NTGC car despite only half of the season being done.

“Race one we basically kept out of trouble, I kept my nose clean, and made a few places up,” he said. “It’s so hard to overtake around here, and so easy for something bad to happen, so I was trying to be sensible in the first two races.

“I thought the win was on in race three. I thought I managed it quite well and apparently a lot of the cars around me were on the soft tyre and I was on the medium. I was very aware that we were open to a big move at the hairpin and get tapped and spun around and all that, so I was quite defensive, but held it quite well.

“Then Tom made quite a robust move which I turned out of, because I saw him coming and I wanted to try and make it work, so I didn’t take the apex, but he muscled me out of the way and it was a shame that Proctor was so close behind him as well. Third is good, but a win would have been nice.”