Jelley ‘in a good place to fight’ after Brands podium

Stephen Jelley says his Team Parker Racing outfit ‘are in really good place to fight’ after clinching the BMW outfit’s first ever British Touring Car Championship podium finish at Brands Hatch.

Jelley bounced back from the disappointment of being disqualified from qualifying by finishing the final race of the day in third to hand Team Parker Racing a maiden BTCC rostrum finish.

The 36-year old had originally qualified in eighth but saw his time disallowed after his BMW 125i M Sport failed the obligatory ride-height test.

“A first podium for Team Parker. Well done to everyone in the team. They’ve done a great job. We’ve built this thing up for a number of years and we’ve eaten our pound of muck but we’re in a really good place to fight this year,” Jelley told Crash.net.

“Starting 30th on the grid and ending up on the podium in the last race is just bonkers! It’s only in the BTCC that this is going to happen.”

Jelley was one of only a handful of drivers to opt for the slick tyre during a chaotic opening race and scythed his way from 30th to 7th as a result of that decision.

“The weather conditions in race one definitely helped and we made the right tyre choice. From there on we had a great car so we could make it work,” Jelley continued.

“I came round and said slicks. We had the soft tyre as well. That was 100% the tyre to be on. My engineer didn’t tell me everyone was on wets so I assumed everyone was on the same I was on.

“It was a bit sketchy on lap one but after that it was clearly the tyre to be on. I was just surprised chose the wet. It was a bit of a bonkers decision. I’m glad we made the right decision.”

Lining up in sixth for the reverse grid race, Jelley made a sensational start from the third row and found himself in the lead by Druids.

Having realised his grid slot was placed on a crest, Jelley said knew he could make good ground at the start if everything went his way.

“We were just on the crest of a little hill on the start/finish and I knew if I could roll down that hill I could get a good start and put more revs down than normal and not get as much wheel spin and it worked a treat,” Jelley explained.

“The waves parted, the cars didn’t come in and block too much. I was just able to snake my way through. It doesn’t normally work like that!”

As virtue of his first podium finish since taking the race win at Rockingham in 2009, Jelley sits third in the early championship standings.