News Article
Jordan King makes solid start to national title assault
Warwickshire karting star Jordan King has made a solid start to his challenge for glory in the national Super 1 Series at PF International, with an eye-catching performance at a circuit that had hitherto not smiled upon him in 2009.
Having narrowly finished as runner-up in the Super 1 Mini Max title chase last year, Jordan is bidding to go one spot better this time around after graduating to the more powerful and fiercely-competitive KF3 class, despite trailing in the experience stakes in comparison with many of his more established rivals.
Though his warm-up outing at Shenington the weekend before had been disrupted by a rival spinning into him on the rolling-up lap on the way around to the starting grid that left him with a broken axle, the 15-year-old shrugged off the less-than ideal preparations like the pro that he has become – and travelled to PF with a point to prove after being shunted from pillar to post in previous appearances at the Lincolnshire track, and in one meeting even being left with two broken fingers.
“I knew that would change with there being timed qualifying in Super 1,” he contended, “because that allows all the fast people to get to the front of the grid. When the grids are mixed up randomly the slow guys could be at the front with quicker ones further back, which is what can cause the problems.
“I feel as confident as I did last year and that I’ve improved quite a bit as a driver since then – probably mentally more than anything, in that I don’t get worried or stressed any more. I’m not putting any pressure on myself, because I know I can do it. I’ll just be trying to do my best.”
With a new chassis at his disposal for the occasion, Jordan lapped right up at the sharp end of proceedings throughout Friday practice, but as his competitors found more speed on the Saturday he struggled to improve. A number of changes for qualifying seemed to do the trick – but that was to count without other issues…
“When the new tyres come on, you only really have two laps to get a fast lap in on them,” the Harbury ace explained. “I got a gap ahead, but then on the lap we went for it everyone in front of us slowed down and backed off to find a gap for themselves, so I kept hitting traffic.
“The kart and engine both felt really good. My mechanic Stuart reckoned we could definitely have gone a couple of tenths quicker, and a good tow down the straight could have given me an extra tenth as well.”
It was a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and an unlucky 13th out of the 41 entrants at the end of the session was the outcome – barely three tenths of a second shy of the top spot and a scant three hundredths away from eighth in the closely-packed field, albeit five positions clear of the defending class champion. As a result, he would begin both of his heat races from ninth place.
“We got a steady start in heat one, but then the driver in front of me on the grid, Paul Hardy, held back into the first corner which blocked me and left a gap open to the drivers behind,” Jordan recounted. “We managed to fight back through to sixth in the end; pace-wise the kart wasn’t amazing, but it was good to get points towards the grid for the final.
“In the second heat Paul did exactly the same thing again. He didn’t go into the first corner hard at all; he backed right off which left me trapped, and people behind shunted into me which spun me round in the middle of the corner. I was fully sideways and dropped down to stone last, but we came back through to 11th from there; we still weren’t necessarily that fast, but our racecraft and overtaking in coming through the traffic were good.”
That they certainly were, but 14th on the 30-strong grid for the first of the two finals was nevertheless far from what the Repton School pupil had been anticipating as he begins his attack on the laurels. A stunning charge saw him rise as high as fourth position at one stage before he ultimately took the chequered flag sixth, with a better fastest lap time to his credit than that of the race-winner.
“Again we didn’t have the pace we’d been hoping for,” he related. “We managed to get up to fourth, but then Sam Blake and Alex Albon came past and I couldn’t quite hold onto them. They were able to go into the corners a bit harder than I was – the Maranello chassis goes well when there’s a lot of grip down like there is in Europe, and at PF there wasn’t much.
“That meant I was sliding around and just couldn’t get it to turn into the corners well enough, or get on the throttle as quickly again on the exit. Sixth was still an excellent result, though, I thought, given where we had started. It would have been better to have been fourth of course, but it was good points again so I was quite happy with that.
“That meant we started sixth for the second final. We got up into third before slipping back to fourth, but I was managing to hold onto the lead group in front and had a big gap behind me. When they started to fight amongst themselves I got onto the back of them because they were all slowing each other down, but that allowed a couple of other drivers to get onto the back of me too.
“Everyone was pushing everyone else and I got fired off by Guilherme Silva. I don’t know why he did it; it was just a really silly move. We had been on for some good points. I reckon if the front pack hadn’t started battling when they did and if I could have stayed close enough then in the last few laps when they did eventually start fighting we could maybe have taken a couple more places. It was a shame we never got the chance.”
The fact that his assailant was black-flagged for his rash manoeuvre was small consolation in the end for what could very likely have been a podium finish, and after rejoining from the knock in 12th place, Jordan worked his way back through to ninth again at the close. Nonetheless, that has left him firmly in touch in the championship standings at the end of round one – and clearly revved up for the fight.
“It was good to get some points in the bag,” he concluded, “even if I was a bit disappointed that we couldn’t have done a bit better. I was frustrated by what had happened in the final, but it’s a long championship with six rounds left and we’re sitting sixth, just 15 points off the lead.
“We can make that up pretty quickly, and there are a couple of drivers in front of us who we know are not going to be consistent throughout the whole year. When there’s more grip down too in the summer months, we know our kart will be better. I think it’s going to be a good season.”
