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	Stephen Jelley	18	28'58.209
2	Aiden Moffat	18	28'59.750	1.541
3	Josh Cook	18	29'02.184	3.975
4	Gordon Shedden	18	29'02.611	4.402
5	Rory Butcher	18	29'03.405	5.196
6	Dan Cammish	18	29'06.454	8.245
7	Ricky Collard	18	29'06.470	8.261
8	Adam Morgan	18	29'06.662	8.453
9	Ash Hand	18	29'09.712	11.503
10	Aron Taylor-Smith	18	29'14.879	16.670
11	Jason Plato	18	29'15.103	16.894
12	Daniel Rowbottom	18	29'15.362	17.153
13	Jake Hill	18	29'20.363	22.154
14	Ollie Jackson	18	29'21.114	22.905
15	Dexter Patterson	18	29'21.410	23.201
16	Ashley Sutton	18	29'21.658	23.449
17	Tom Ingram	18	29'22.047	23.838
18	Jade Edwards	18	29'22.572	24.363
19	Jack Butel	18	29'22.859	24.650
20	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
	Sam Osborne	6	12'54.138	12 Laps
	Bobby Thompson	5	10'24.101	13 Laps
	Daniel Lloyd	0
	Colin Turkington	0
	Michael Crees	0
View full results