Rob Collard admitted he wasn't amused with rookie Stephen Jelley after the pair collided during the second round of the HiQ MSA British British Touring Car Championship at
Brands Hatch.
Having missed most of the 2007 season, aside from a return for the finale at
Thruxton, Collard was making his comeback in the series at the wheel of one of the Motorbase Performance
BMW 320sis, while Jelley was making his debut in the similar car of Team RAC.
The pair finished twelfth and 14th in the opening race of the weekend at the Kent circuit but then contact in race two saw Collard go off into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend – leaving him far from amused.
"My car's power steering had broken and I was keeping to one side to let the others past – I was probably going to pit on that lap but instead Jelley just piled into me from behind," he said. "I don't know what he was thinking. Jelley needs to go to Specsavers and sort his eyesight out."
Not surprisingly, Jelley took a different view to the incident.
"I'm not a mind reader," he said. "I was right up behind him and he suddenly braked about 50 metres too early. You can't react to something you don't know about.
"If he was moving over he should have put on the left indicator and slowed down for us to go past, but it shows quite clearly on TV that he didn't pull over properly.
"And if he can't cope without power steering he needs to man up a bit."
