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Autosport
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Sport
Marcus Simmons

BTCC Oulton Park: Jelley wins after massive multi-car first-lap shunt

While Jelley made the best of his reversed grid pole position to insert his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport into the lead from Aiden Moffat’s front-row starting Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50, it all kicked off in the battle for third.

Dan Lloyd had made up a place from Josh Cook to put his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N into fourth position at Old Hall, and then attempted to round the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla of Ricky Collard at the Island hairpin.

They raced side by side over Hill Top with Lloyd very slightly ahead, but Collard was hemmed in with the grass to his right when they collided.

Lloyd speared into the barriers and then bounced back onto the track.

As his Excelr8 Hyundai team-mate Tom Ingram veered off to the right onto the grass in avoidance, that left Colin Turkington suddenly confronted with the Hyundai, and the WSR BMW smashed into its side.

Michael Crees was caught up the wreckage, ending his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra’s race, while Ash Sutton also took to the grass in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus.

Lloyd was taken to hospital for precautionary X-rays on his ribs, while Turkington emerged with a sore neck and chest.

Tom Ingram, Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com Hyundai i30N, Daniel Lloyd, Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com Hyundai i30N, Colin Turkington, Team BMW BMW 330e M Sport and Michael Crees, CarStore with Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra crash (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

After a safety-car interlude, the race restarted with 13 laps remaining.

Jelley, who had hybrid problems during the day, wasted no time in extending an advantage over Moffat.

This extended as far as 2.024 seconds with six laps remaining, although Moffat had trimmed it back to 1.541s by the finish.

Moffat had a queue comprising Collard, Josh Cook, Gordon Shedden, Rory Butcher and Dan Cammish behind him for a while, but eventually escaped from their clutches.

Collard hung on to finish third from the Honda Civic Type Rs of Cook (BTC Racing) and Shedden (Team Dynamics) plus his Speedworks Toyota team-mate Butcher, but a five-second time penalty for a false start dropped him to seventh in the results.

That promoted Cook to third, Shedden to fourth, Butcher to fifth and Dan Cammish (Motorbase Ford) to sixth.

Cammish faded late in the race and came under attack from the charging Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan, who was recovering from his first-lap exit and was the fastest on track late in the race.

Cammish just about held on, and somehow Collard’s corrected time split him from Morgan. Completing the top 10 were Ash Hand (PMR Vauxhall) and Aron Taylor-Smith (Team Hard Cupra).

Stephen Jelley, Team BMW BMW 330e M Sport (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Sutton and Ingram were both forced to pit under the safety car to remove grass from their radiators from their first-lap excursions, and found themselves in company with Jake Hill, whose WSR BMW had gone off at the hairpin on the first lap.

Hill finished as the best of the trio in 13th, with Sutton 16th and Ingram 17th, meaning that Cook has re-established his championship lead.

Results: Race 3

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Stephen Jelley 18 28'58.209  
2 United Kingdom Aiden Moffat 18 28'59.750 1.541
3 United Kingdom Josh Cook 18 29'02.184 3.975
4 United Kingdom Gordon Shedden 18 29'02.611 4.402
5 United Kingdom Rory Butcher 18 29'03.405 5.196
6 United Kingdom Dan Cammish 18 29'06.454 8.245
7 United Kingdom Ricky Collard 18 29'06.470 8.261
8 United Kingdom Adam Morgan 18 29'06.662 8.453
9 United Kingdom Ash Hand 18 29'09.712 11.503
10 Ireland Aron Taylor-Smith 18 29'14.879 16.670
11 United Kingdom Jason Plato 18 29'15.103 16.894
12 United Kingdom Daniel Rowbottom 18 29'15.362 17.153
13 United Kingdom Jake Hill 18 29'20.363 22.154
14 United Kingdom Ollie Jackson 18 29'21.114 22.905
15 Dexter Patterson 18 29'21.410 23.201
16 United Kingdom Ashley Sutton 18 29'21.658 23.449
17 United Kingdom Tom Ingram 18 29'22.047 23.838
18 Jade Edwards 18 29'22.572 24.363
19 Jersey Jack Butel 18 29'22.859 24.650
20 United Kingdom Tom Chilton 18 29'23.450 25.241
21 Will Powell 18 29'29.627 31.418
22 Nicolas Hamilton 18 29'30.058 31.849
  Rick Parfitt Jr. 13 22'00.293 5 Laps
  George Gamble 9 16'03.475 9 Laps
  United Kingdom Sam Osborne 6 12'54.138 12 Laps
  Bobby Thompson 5 10'24.101 13 Laps
  United Kingdom Daniel Lloyd 0    
  United Kingdom Colin Turkington 0    
  Michael Crees 0    
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