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Thousands of fans of the BBC show downloaded 1975 hit Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) after the first episode of the new series on Sunday night.

Presenting trio Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May urged viewers to buy the record after reporting that Harley, 63, was slapped with a £1,000 fine for doing 70mph in his BMW on the M25 near Swanley, Kent.

Clarkson, 54, joked: “He’s eeking a meagre living out of, let’s be honest, one hit single.

“Everyone loves that song - you can’t trust someone who doesn’t like that song.”

Hammond, 45, agreed with him pal, claiming: “Imagine if everybody did it - he would wake up tomorrow and think ‘I’m number one, where did that come from’?

“It would cheer him up.”

By yesterday morning the track had reached number 26 in the download charts, above hits by One Direction, Take That and Ellie Goulding, 28.

Make Me Smile sold a whopping one million copies when it was first released, and has since been covered by more than 120 artists, most notably by Duran Duran.

The show also featured May, 52, deleting the song from his smartphone so he could pay to upload it again.

And the trio suggested Harley could use any extra cash to help motorists caught out by speed cameras and the rocker tweeted his gratitude for Top Gear’s campaign as the track to continued to climb the chart.

He said: “Thanks @JeremyClarkson for kicking off the #makemesmile foundation.

“More than happy to subsidise the poor sods who drive down Swanley Way!”

Harley, who was also handed six points on his licence after breaking a temporary speed limit, claimed he was “victimised” and his punishment was “out of proportion”.

Meanwhile, Sunday’s episode was the first of the hugely successful programme’s 22nd series and Clarkson even found time to poke fun at America.

He tweeted: “Top Gear is being broadcast simultaneously round the civilised world tonight.“It’s on in America tomorrow.”