Jelley wins dramatic race three as title contenders caught in shunt

Team BMW's Stephen Jelley has won a dramatic reverse grid race at Oulton Park after a huge opening lap shunt saw three out of the four leading British Touring Car Championship title contenders fall out of contention.

With race two winner Tom Ingram, defending champion Ash Sutton and Team BMW's Colin Turkington all starting further down the order in 12th, 11th and 10th respectively, all three found themselves caught up in a huge shunt, which was triggered by contact with Ricky Collard and Dan Lloyd.

While Jelley led away from pole position, Lloyd and Collard made contact heading down Hilltop. That led to Lloyd losing control of his Hyundai, which was then unwittingly collected by Turkington, who had nowhere to go.

That immediately eliminated Turkington from the race, while Lloyd took a second heavy hit from Michael Crees, who was also powerless when trying to avoid the stricken Hyundai.

Thankfully, Turkington and Lloyd emerged from the wreckage of their cars, but both appeared to be winded as they vacated the area.

With multiple drivers darting across the track to escape making contact with Turkington and Lloyd, Sutton and Ingram both made miraculous saves as they veered off the circuit to avoid the damage.

However, Sutton and Ingram had to dive into the pits under the safety car with both cars starting to overheat with grass lodged in their front grills.

Both re-emerged, but well down the field and out of contention, while BTC Racing's Josh Cook saw fortune swing back into his favour sitting fourth on the road as the race restarted.

Once the race restarted, Jelley controlled proceedings at the front of the field with little to no opposition. The Team BMW driver produced a faultless performance to deliver West Surrey Racing some consolation after Turkington's violent shunt.

Jelley eventually crossed the line 1.5s ahead of Aiden Moffat, who scored his first podium finish of the year in second.

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Collard finished the race third on the road, but a five-second penalty for jumping the start saw him slip to seventh.

That promoted BTC Racing's Cook onto the podium in third, which has given the Honda driver a 15-point lead ahead of Ingram in the title race.

More to follow.