Stephen Jelley ‘on an upward trajectory’ heading to Snetterton

Stephen Jelley is in an optimistic mood for this weekend’s British Touring Car Championship races at Snetterton, with the Team BMW driver pointing to an ‘upward trajectory’ in his recent form.

Jelley claimed a trio of top ten finishes last time out at Knockhill – including just missing out on a podium in race one – with the results marking the first time this year that he has finished all races in a weekend inside the top ten.

At the two-day tyre test at Snetterton in July, Jelley ended up with the tenth best lap time overall, completing almost a hundred laps, with Jelley being half a second faster than team-mate Colin Turkington.

Last year Jelley also had his best weekend at the Norfolk circuit to-date, securing three top seven finishes.

“We seem to be on an upward trajectory after a slow start to the season where the results weren’t particularly forthcoming,” said the 40-year-old.

“When we got to Oulton Park we got the win, so it was great to get the monkey off the back and it kind of opened the floodgates.

“On the face of it, Croft wasn’t a great weekend, but we scored solid points and then the same again for Knockhill.

“Most of our points have come in the last three races, and we’ve now moved into the top ten in the championship.

“We ran at the Snetterton tyre test in July, and it went well. We tried things that we wouldn’t normally be able to do on a race weekend as you’re very time limited in the free practice sessions. It was a chance to experiment, and we found some useful information.”

With temperatures forecast to be in the mid-30s this weekend, fitness will be crucial and Jelley has been working on his own condition in the summer break.

“The summer break has done exactly what it’s supposed to; it’s given me some time off, a chance to reset, spend some time with the family, and get the bug back, because sometimes you go through a phase where you’re racing every other week and the energy level required on a weekend wipes you out.

“I did a bit of fitness work because you can’t do as much when you’re in those two-week cycles of racing as you’re constantly trying to recover and not be fatigued ahead of the next one.

“As a team, we’ve got to the point where I’m confident we can go to any racetrack and can be challenging for the podium, which is a fantastic place to be, so I can’t wait to get going.”