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Rising star Jordan looks a racing certainty for future glory
Young Harbury karting ace Jordan King has signed off his maiden Mini Max campaign with a string of front-running performances and looks sure to be a contender for overall honours next year.
Incredibly still in only his second full season of competition, Jordan produced one of the drives of the weekend in the prestigious annual Kartmasters meeting at PF International in Lincolnshire, stealing the show in the final before a small mistake in the treacherous conditions led to an early bath.
“I wasn’t really thinking I could win the event,” he said, “so heading into it I didn’t feel particularly nervous. The heats went ok, but in one of them my engine oiled up which meant I didn’t finish and that left me down in 21st on the grid for the pre-final, from where I managed to get up to eighth. That was really good.”
Indeed it was, and a testament to Jordan’s supreme wet weather driving skills on a tricky surface. Further evidence of that would come later in the all-important grand final, with a superb charge up through the order into second position – making up ground on the leader ahead – despite suffering a worrying loss of braking ability midway through.
“ That meant I kept having to lift off halfway down the main straight just to be able to make it around the first corner,” he said. “I was happy in that I knew I could be quick enough to be up there, but a bit disappointed I wasn’t able to finish in the top five. I simply went in a bit too quick, aquaplaned on a puddle and went off. I think if I had stayed on the track it would have been a good race towards the end.”
The weekend nevertheless gave Jordan a welcome lift ahead of his next outing at Three Sisters near Wigan in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow, the same series that helped launch a certain Lewis Hamilton on the fast track to Formula 1 superstardom.
A trio of strong heats – a close second place to champion Ashley Sutton in the opening one, followed by a fifth and a ninth – left him sixth on the grid for Saturday’s final out of some 28 competitors. He would convert that into an equally solid sixth position at the flag, again a scant seven hundredths of a second adrift of Sutton. And then, on Sunday, the heavens opened.
“In the wet practice session we were quickest by two tenths,” the 13-year-old explained. “I was collecting quite a lot of points, but then in the third heat my steering went at the end of the start-finish straight and I just went straight on! That was quite frustrating, but I was happy to have proved I was quick enough to fight at the front again.”
Lying fourth and closing on the third-placed driver at the time, the failure dealt Jordan a hefty blow in terms of his final chances, leaving him down in 13th spot on the grid rather than the fourth position he would otherwise likely have occupied. More significantly still, it also cost him some 20 championship points and a possible top ten end-of-season ranking.
Reflecting on his campaign as a whole, the Xtreme Racing star said he believed he had learned and improved considerably over the course of it.
Now getting ready to tackle his third year of racing the goalposts have been shifted once again, and he acknowledges the Mini Max title is not an inconceivable aim.
“I felt I was quite quick at the beginning of the season,” he said. “I got taken out of the first round of Super 1 at Clay Pigeon, but I was two tenths faster than the eventual winner at the time. I was sixth from last on the grid and there were still eight laps to go.
“I’ve certainly learned a lot in race-craft terms throughout the year. I maybe lacked a bit of pace halfway through when I really had to fight for positions. I didn’t have the power to just get past people and drive away.
“I’ve got a bit more confidence in my driving now, though, which will help me next year. I remember when I started to get a bit quicker and nearer to the front the other drivers didn’t really know who I was, so they bullied me around a bit. I had to fight for everything and really make a name for myself. Now I think I’ve earned a bit more respect”
