Jelley to make another BTCC return in Honda

4-time British Touring Automotive Championship race winner Stephen Jelley is to make a shock return to the sequence in 2025.

The 42-year-old, who spent final season within the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, has taken the second seat at One Motorsport to pilot a Honda Civic Kind R.

It reunites Jelley with One staff chief Josh Cook, eight years after the duo partnered one another for the primary 4 rounds of the 2017 season at Workforce Parker Racing.

“The Carrera Cup is nice and I used to be protecting my choices open to be sincere,” Jelley advised Autosport.

“But it surely was apparent to me final 12 months, once I was entertaining private sponsors and folks on the racetrack, that the draw is the BTCC, and the prices for the BTCC have come down.

“I used to be ready to see if I might get a little bit of a deal, and groups got here out of the woodwork early doorways and the budgets concerned will not be rather more than a Carrera Cup finances, so it begins to change into a no brainer – and also you get to do two additional rounds. It’s nice to be again!”

Jelley added that he was impressed by the work that has taken place on the Brackley premises of One Motorsport.

The staff confirmed final week that will probably be utilizing the shopper TOCA engine constructed by M-Sport and put in within the Civic FK8s it used up till the tip of the 2022 season somewhat than the newer-build automobiles it raced in 2023, earlier than its one-season sabbatical final 12 months.

“I didn’t know what to anticipate,” he stated. “Josh had began pestering me and calling me up! He was saying, ‘We’ve acquired a superb factor happening and we need to get a team-mate who’s going to be helpful.’ And I assumed it will be fairly a superb driver pairing.

“I went down to take a look and was pleasantly stunned by what I discovered. You possibly can inform that they’ve pressed the inexperienced button and began going once more, they usually’ve performed a good bit of improvement on the automobile.

“All the fellows that had been working for the staff earlier than have shortly come again. They’ve all needed to be a part of it and there are some actually good guys.”

Jelley, whose BTCC success has all are available rear-wheel-drive BMWs, added that his shared expertise with Cook dinner of the 2017 Ford Focus – earlier than the West Countryman returned mid-season to the Triple Eight MG squad – has not deterred him from front-wheel drive, a format he had by no means raced earlier than and has not performed since.

“I’ve acquired much less expertise in front-wheel drive, however I’m not so fearful,” he argued. “The Focus was a whole snotter, however the Honda has acquired good pedigree as fairly a forgiving automobile.

“After I was there with Josh on the similar time we weren’t too dissimilar, so I assumed perhaps I’ll have one other go.

“If I’m going to drive within the BTCC after this 12 months, I’d higher kind my front-wheel drive out, however I’m not placing an excessive amount of strain on myself.”

Energy Maxed on the grid in spite of everything

Mikey Doble, Evans Halshaw Energy Maxed Racing

Photograph by: JEP

Elsewhere within the Independents class, Energy Maxed Racing will likely be current within the BTCC this season despite the recent loss of its title sponsor.

The Midlands squad, which swept to a clear sweep of Independents crowns in 2024, will scale all the way down to a single Vauxhall Astra after buying new backing from Motor Components Direct.

PMR boss Adam Weaver was moved to place out a press release in February suggesting that the staff’s participation was trying extremely uncertain, so the information will likely be extremely welcome because the BTCC appears set to comfortably exceed its 20-car common grid determine from 2024.

Though reigning Independents champion Aron Taylor-Smith’s move to Toyota team Speedworks Motorsport was virtually simultaneous to PMR’s February assertion, 2024 Jack Sears Trophy title winner Mikey Doble continues to be strongly linked to a 3rd season within the Astra.

“That is one thing that I’ve tried to make occur for numerous years, due to this fact I am extremely completely satisfied that it’s now going to change into actuality,” stated Weaver of the Motor Components Direct tie-up.

“I do know Darren [Wykes, managing director], Kevin [Blazey, marketing director] and lots of the staff throughout Motor Components Direct as I’ve labored with them for years, so it’s actually thrilling to be beginning this journey with such a powerful relationship already established.”