News Article
King rises above the controversy to triumph in FKS KF3 thriller
Jordan King admitted to a case of the red mist after being contentiously disqualified from the results of the first pre-final in the opening meeting on the 2009 Formula Kart Stars (FKS) calendar – but he channelled his frustrations into consummate on-track performances, as he charged from the back of the grid to nearly grab a podium spot on the Saturday and swept all before him to triumph the very next day.
The UK’s premier karting series, FKS – formerly BRDC Stars of Tomorrow – has the official backing of both Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone and reigning F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, and is the same one from which the latter first sprang to prominence little over a decade ago. Despite having only made the graduation to the more powerful KF3 class this year – after finishing as British Mini Max Vice-Champion in 2008 – Jordan is already widely regarded as one of the pre-season favourites for glory. At Kimbolton at the weekend, he would show exactly why.
The young Harbury star was on the pace from the word ‘go’ around the Cambridgeshire circuit – one he had not visited for a year, but equally one at which he boasted an excellent résumé – and after lapping right up at the sharp end in practice in greasy and slippery conditions, he was harbouring high hopes indeed.
“We were a little bit off the pace in the dry, but when it rained we were very fast – maybe a little bit off Alex Albon, but still very quick,” he related. “It was the first time we had been there since they’ve changed the track, and my first time there in KF3 full-stop. I hadn’t raced there for a year, and the track is a lot grippier now than it used to be. It’s always been fast and flowing, but there isn’t as much run-off on the exit of some of the corners anymore, and the kerbs are different.
“It’s a circuit I enjoy, though, and I’ve won there in the past in Mini Max. I came here three weekends in a row once, and we won three heats and the final in two of those meetings and came second in the other one. I also finished fourth there in Stars two years ago. I was feeling confident after practice, and I was happy with how qualifying went because we were fast; we knew that if we could find just a little more time in the kart we could hopefully stay with Alex.”
His Saturday, however, was tarnished by a controversial coming-together with Callum Bowyer in the pre-final as, after slipping back from second on the grid when he got caught up in the first corner confusion, he endeavoured to snatch third place at the end of the start-finish straight – an incident that sent Bowyer spinning into the barriers and one for which Jordan maintained he was blameless, but over which he would find himself excluded from the runner-up spot in the results and forced to begin the grand final from the very back of the fiercely-competitive, 23-strong KF3 field.
“At the start everyone was just lunging into the first corner and I fell right back,” the 15-year-old recounted, “but I made a lot of places up again and got alongside Callum going down the straight. He then started squeezing me and pushed me towards the edge of the circuit. I was trying to keep it on the track and in a straight line, but as he came across on me his front wheel hit my front wheel and it sent him off into the wall.
“After that the gap between me and Alex pretty much stayed the same all the way through. Without what had happened at the start it would have been a good race between the two of us, I reckon, but I was pretty pleased to be second all considered – especially as we still thought we could find a bit more time in the kart. It was gutting to be excluded afterwards for something I felt wasn’t my fault.”
A magnificent charge, however, would see the Maranello ace quite literally scythe his way up the order – at one stage even passing three rivals into one corner – and a last-gasp pass on Jacob Stilp earned him fourth place, as he took the chequered flag right on the heels of Macaulay Walsh and Bowyer. Just a couple more laps, he contended, and he could have had second place behind Albon, but there remained Sunday – when the aim was to right what he perceived had been a considerable wrong, and prove a point into the bargain. Eighth place in qualifying, though, was far from the ideal start.
“It was a combination of not quite being in the right place at the right time in terms of traffic, and not hooking everything up perfectly on my fastest lap,” he explained. “I made a few mistakes which cost us a lot of time. Then in the final, because the track was almost dry after it had rained for most of the weekend up until then, everyone went out on slick tyres. That was pretty new territory for me really, because we hadn’t been out on slicks in morning practice whereas a few other drivers had.”
Nonetheless, Jordan has a strong record of starting from eighth position – including his two most recent WSK International Series results in Italy, with victory in the Sarno pre-final and third place in the grand final at Castelletto. True to form once again, he was already up to fifth at the end of lap one, and would dispose of both Stilp and surprise package Xavier Warburton a handful of laps later to focus his attentions on the lead battle between Albon and his Saturday nemesis Bowyer.
“When they started to fight I caught up a lot,” the Repton School pupil related, “and got onto the back of them with three or four laps to go. I got into second, and then on the last lap lunged up the inside of Callum into the Bus-Stop to take the lead. He left the door ever-so-slightly open and I just dived past, and despite a tap into the last corner, I held it to the finish. It felt really good to cross the line to win, especially given what had happened on the Saturday. It proved that we had the pace.”
That it certainly did, and as well as being revenge for his crushing disappointment the previous day, the result continued Jordan’s superb start to the new campaign, as he leads the British charge in Europe and now contemplates an all-out assault on the FKS laurels too, having initially only entered for less than a handful of meetings.
“Obviously we knew that if we had a good start we would try to make more of the rounds to get higher up in the championship,” he reasoned, “so we might do some more now…”
