Jelley targets 'strong points' after stand-out qualifying

Team Parker Racing's Stephen Jelley is looking to back up his stand-out qualifying performance by scoring a strong haul of points during today's three Knockhill British Touring Car Championship races.

Jelley produced a sensational performance during yesterday's 30-minute shootout to qualify his BMW 125i M Sport machine onto the front row, just 0.023s shy of Dan Cammish's pole position lap.

The two-time BTCC race winner held provisional pole after the becoming the first of three drivers to dip under 51 second barrier. However, Jelley ultimately had to give best to the Honda of Cammish before securing a famous front-row result for his Team Parker Racing outfit.

"The car balance has been quite good all year," Jelley told Crash.net. "We’ve just struggled with straight-line speed in a few places. The straights aren’t very big here and I the BMW obviously suits Knockhill.

"It’s got a good history here. It was a matter of stringing it all together.

"We were in 11th in the first practice session and that’s a marked improvement on where we’ve been at other places this year. We knew we were on for something but we didn’t quite expect to be fighting for pole."

Having been unable to convert his P8 starting position into a strong result at Croft earlier in the season, Jelley says he's looking to make amends for that previous disappointment.

"The guys have been putting a lot of work in. We had a bit of a result in qualifying at Croft, but I got driven into 200 metres off the line. The guys were visibly dejected," Jelley continued.

"It’s great to see everyone back up again. It’s just a matter of converting it into a result. Everyone gets excited about winning the race, but to score a strong points result would be great for the team to build for the rest of the day.

"We’ve got three races, a good points would be most welcome."