Having encountered ill-fortune in the Teretonga curtain-raiser but bounced back with a well-judged podium finish second time out at Timaru, Jordan travelled more than 500 miles from South Island to North Island to the state-of-the-art Taupo Motorsport Park – a technical and in parts fearsomely-fast circuit, with top speeds along the main straight approaching an eye-watering 145mph.

Bullish about his prospects, after keeping his powder dry during practice – albeit always lapping there or thereabouts in the 19-strong field – the highly-rated Stoneleigh-based single-seater star then unleashed his full potential in qualifying by storming his way to the top spot on the starting grid.

“It was a really tough session,” he affirmed. “Midway through, I was fastest, but then other drivers went quicker as we concentrated more on our race strategy, and I had to dig really deep. The times were incredibly close, but fortunately, I managed to find the last tenth of a second that I needed to secure pole.

“I made a great start in the first race – 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds – and then began to pull out a gap, setting a new fastest lap in the process that I later discovered was also a new lap record by more than a second. I built up an advantage of almost three seconds, and after that I chilled out a bit; it felt so good to be quick enough to be in a position to just relax and know that I still had more time in my pocket had I needed it. Crossing the line to win was absolutely mega, and my team M2 Competition were so happy.”

Jordan’s pace over the 15-lap showdown was impressive indeed, and he consolidated it with a brace of similarly eye-catching efforts that yielded fourth spot from sixth on the reverse-grid in race two, and a competitive third in race three, the 20-lap Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy in homage to the 1967 F1 World Champion. That combination of results saw the 17-year-old BRDC Rising Star conclude the weekend as the Toyota Racing Series’ top points-scorer – and vault up to sixth place in the championship points table for good measure.

“I had a terrible start in race two that dropped me down to ninth initially,” he recalled, “but then I fought back and overtook one driver after another as I closed the gap on the leaders. That was so much fun! I passed five cars in total over the 15 laps to finish fourth, and our speed was really good all the way through.

“The wind changed direction before race three, though, and that caused the track conditions to change, too. Our set-up that had been so fast in the first two races didn’t quite work with the lower downforce, which meant that although I was lapping at the same pace as the top two, I wasn’t able to catch them. It would have been nice to come away with a second win from the weekend, but in the circumstances, we were happy enough with third place.”

Justifiably so, and as he turns his attentions towards the final two meetings at Hampton Downs and Manfeild, the Princethorpe College A-Level student and Hugo Boss brand ambassador does so in the knowledge that he has now truly made his mark in the southern hemisphere – and given the local specialists more than a little to think about.

“The M2 boys all did a superb job again, and overall it was a fantastic weekend!” he reflected. “One of the races at Hampton Downs will be the New Zealand Motor Cup, which has been won by some of the most famous drivers in the history of the sport. It would be awesome to add my name to that trophy, too.”

The 17-year-old has already won races in the UK, Europe and India, and can now add New Zealand to his impressive CV of victories that belies his young age and relative inexperience.

King claimed pole position for race one at Taupo and never looked back, setting a new circuit lap record during his commanding lights-to-flag victory for the M2 Motorsport squad.

A fourth place followed in race two, before he went one better in the final race of the weekend. Starting from the second row of the reverse grid Denny Hulme Memorial race, King fought his was into third and set about attacking his old adversary Josh Hill – son of former World Champion Damon. 

A lurid moment left Jordan returning from a run on to the grass, but he had time in hand to maintain position and claim his second podium of an impressive weekend.

A full report on Jordan’s incredible weekend will follow over the coming days

The Toyota Racing Series is New Zealand’s most fiercely competitive single-seater championship, and the one-make, slicks n’ wings formula – marrying a Tatuus-designed carbon-fibre chassis to a 215bhp Toyota engine – guarantees a level playing field. That being so, qualifying second-quickest amongst the 19 contenders on his debut at Teretonga – a mere whisker shy of the benchmark around a circuit he had never so much as set eyes upon before – saw Jordan lay down an early marker.

“I really enjoyed the track,” enthused the 17-year-old Stoneleigh-based speed demon. “Even though the lap was quite short and didn’t take me particularly long to learn, it was still very demanding and posed plenty of new challenges. The level of competition is strong, too, and it was all a bit of a step into the unknown for me since I hadn’t raced against any of the other drivers in cars before. Our pace was really good in practice, though, and we put everything we learnt into qualifying and found the last extra bit that we needed.”

A flurry of bad luck come the three rain-afflicted races resulted in a brace of failures to finish – albeit briefly leading and going on to lap second-quickest in the first of them, faster than the winner – and a solitary tenth place, far less than Jordan deserved. Undeterred, the BRDC Rising Star vowed to fight back a week later at Timaru – and he did so in fine style.

Qualifying in eighth position – in front, once more, of his highly-rated, Ferrari-backed M2 Competition team-mate Raffaele Marciello – the Princethorpe College student converted that form into seventh spot in race one, less than four seconds shy of victory and lapping quicker than the three drivers who took the chequered flag directly ahead of him. And then in race two, he really raised the bar.

“It was actually a very challenging circuit and it took a session to get to grips with,” Jordan recalled, “but I ended testing at the top of the timesheets. We seemed to lose a little bit of speed in qualifying, though, and combined with traffic, that left us only eighth when we should have been inside the top five or maybe even top three.

“The first race was tough, with very little opportunity to overtake; that was a shame, as our pace was easily good enough for the top five. In race two, the conditions were quite slippery and I was very quick again over the opening laps, and as other drivers made mistakes towards the end and went off, we picked up some places and wound up third, which I was really pleased about – it’s always good to finish on the podium.

“In race three, I was in fifth pretty much throughout and right up behind the gearbox of the driver ahead. On the last lap, I successfully pulled off a move on him to take fourth position, but then unfortunately I missed a downshift and ran wide, which left me sixth.”

That minor disappointment aside, the Timaru weekend was nonetheless a wholeheartedly positive one for the Hugo Boss brand ambassador, and as he looks ahead now to the remaining outings at Taupo, Hampton Downs and Manfeild, Jordan does so justifiably buoyant about his prospects.

“The form we’ve shown so far is very encouraging,” he concluded, “and I think we’ve proved that our speed is good enough to win.”

The weekend got off to an impressive start when King topped the times in pre-event testing, but he was unable to confirm his undoubted pace during qualifying however, as traffic halted his progress. Both of King’s flying laps in the session were interrupted by slower runners and the Leamington Spa speedster had to settle for fourth row starts for the opening two races.

A splendid start from King had the King of Shaves-backed driver up to sixth in race one, before he was forced on the grass and dropped back to eighth. A determined Jordan spent the remainder of the race re-catching the group and making one pass, to claim seventh at the finish.

His best was yet to come however, when King produced a stunning drive in the 20 lap feature race.

Starting from eighth, he set about passing two rivals in the early running and he was up into fifth shortly after, as his 2011 Formula Renault team-mate Josh Hill tumbled down the order.

Jordan continued to apply pressure to those ahead and both Bruno Bonifacio and Hannes van Asseldonk finally cracked in the slippery conditions. The duo fell out of contention after a late incident and King wasted no time by nipping through into third.

He never looked back and crossed the line to take his maiden podium in the series, in only his second weekend racing Down Under.

King rounded off the weekend with another top ten finish in race three, cementing his reputation as one of the quickest newcomers in TRS.

A full report on Jordan’s exploits in Timaru will be published here over the coming days, ahead of the third round of the series next weekend.

All seemed to be in extremely good order when Jordan put his M2 Competition car on the front row of the grid for the first race of his season, but in a continuation of bad luck that seemed to blight the end of his maiden racing campaign, King was back in the wars on Saturday afternoon.

Despite losing second in the early running, the 17-year-old had retaken the position by the time the safety car was deployed following an incident further down the order. Chaos reigned at the restart with everyone jostling for position and it was an old adversary in Josh Hill – son of former F1 Champion Damon – that played a part in Jordan’s downfall. Contact from Hill’s front nose pierced a rear tyre on King’s car and the puncture sent him tumbling down the order and eventually into retirement.

The second race didn’t prove any better for the newly sponsored King of Shaves racer as he endured his second non-finish in succession.

Starting from the rear of the grid in race three, King was determined to display his genuine speed with a result to match. The talented youngster didn’t disappoint as he carved his way through the field to claim a credible top ten position at the finish.

The weekend yielded no points for King in what had looked like an extremely promising start to his Toyota Racing Series adventure, but the talented teenager remained confident when his official website caught up with him ahead of round two at the Timaru International Speedway next weekend.

What did you think of the circuit? What’s it like? How long did it take to learn?

I really enjoyed the track; even though the lap is quite short and didn’t take me particularly long to learn, it was nonetheless very demanding and posed lots of new challenges.

How strong is the level of competition?

The level of competition is actually quite strong, and it was all a bit of a step into the unknown for me since I hadn’t raced against any of the other drivers in cars before.

How bad was the weather over the weekend? How tricky did that make driving?

The weather was constantly changing really quickly, from wet to dry to wet to dry again. That made things quite tricky for us drivers, but even harder for the teams to get everything right. To their immense credit, M2 Competition did get everything right so it was all good.

You displayed strong pace in practice and excellent form in qualifying – were you encouraged by that?

Yes, our pace was really good in practice and we put everything we learnt into qualifying and found the last bit of speed that we needed.

What’s the team like?

The team has a big mixture of nationalities, and it is a good laugh. I am enjoying being there.

Tell us about the three races.

In the first race, it rained on the warm-up lap and I moved into the lead when the driver ahead spun off, but then I had to back off to avoid hitting him. That cost me a position, and then I made a mistake and lost another. The race was subsequently stopped, and at the re-start I was in third place. I got away really well and went up the inside of the two guys ahead, but one of them hit me with his front wing and gave me a puncture – and that, unfortunately, was that.

In the second race, I had a problem that caused me to keep losing places at the re-starts. I was in fourth, but eventually ended up breaking down. That meant that in race three, I started last. It was raining so much that I could barely see anything at all, but I managed to overtake quite a few others and the car was really good. I kept it on the road and finished sixth.

How would you assess the weekend overall?

The speed we showed was very encouraging, but we just suffered some really bad luck.

How are you feeling going into the next weekend now?

I’m looking forward to the next weekend as a fresh start, and most importantly of all, we know the speed we have is good enough to win.

The five round series runs over consecutive weekends with the season opener taking place in Teretonga (13/15 January) this weekend. Dubbed as the country’s premier, fastest and most fiercely competitive single-seater championship, the Toyota Racing Series spans from mid-January to mid-February and goes on to visit tracks at Timaru, Taupo, Hampton Downs and Manfeild.

Jordan will be spending the entire period in New Zealand, building up his experience and fitness as he prepares for his main championship challenge in Europe this summer. He completed the final TRS test yesterday prior to Friday’s qualifying sessions, but admitted to enduring a relatively frustrating day of running.

“Thursday was a little up and down,” said Jordan. “The first session went well – it started out wet, but we ended up on slick tyres and we were third quickest. All felt good but the second session, which also started wet and ended dry, was a bit more of a struggle as we were running on very old tyres.

“The final session was completely dry but our quickest run on fresh rubber was scuppered by red flags, which was a little disappointing as we weren’t able to show our true speed. So to sum up the day, it was a little frustrating due to the weather, traffic and red flags, but we have learnt a lot and I’m looking forward to the weekend.”

The one-make, slicks n’ wings formula – marrying a Tatuus-designed carbon-fibre chassis to a 215bhp Toyota engine – will not only guarantee a level playing-field, but should also not be a million miles away from what Jordan has been accustomed to in Formula Renault UK this year.

Qualifying at Teretonga takes place on Friday before the opening races of the season on Saturday and Sunday – the official Jordan King website will keep you up to date on his progress.

Over the next five weeks, Jordan will do battle for M2 Competition in the one-make Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand – the country’s premier, fastest and most fiercely-contested single-seater championship.

King of Shaves UK director Paul Adrian admits that the company is delighted to be backing the highly-rated Stoneleigh-based speed demon and BRDC Rising Star, one of Britain’s very brightest young prospects in the sport.

“King of Shaves is proud to announce its sponsorship of Jordan King for the 2012 season,” he affirms, “commencing with the New Zealand activity this weekend.”

Indeed, the 17-year-old Princethorpe College student will first take to the track at Teretonga, followed by outings at Timaru, Taupo, Hampton Downs and Manfeild – and he has set his sights suitably high.

It was, however, an outstanding performance almost 8,000 miles away that brought Jordan to King of Shaves’ attention in the first place, when he brilliantly clinched MRF Formula Championship title glory in front of all the influential F1 movers-and-shakers on the support package for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in October of last year.

“Some of the key people from King of Shaves were there when we won the championship,” he explains, “and we got talking and then arranged a proper meeting back in the UK. It’s clearly a very prestigious company to be associated with, and a cool brand, too – and obviously it’s a particularly good fit with my surname as well!

“To have such a big company behind me and supporting my career like this is a tremendous boost. King of Shaves will help me to create an image for myself, and the deal makes things a lot more exciting looking ahead to the future. It feels like everything is really falling into place now – this is where it gets serious!”

King used both Formula Renault 2.0 cars that he had spent most of his maiden car racing season running in, as he enjoyed a number of test days at Motorland Aragon, Valencia and Spain respectively.

As is often the case, teams travel to the milder climates of the Mediterranean in order to maximise running opportunities and better conditions while Jordan was also happy to again add to his circuit knowledge and experience.

The 17-year-old ran extremely well on his first ever visit to Motorland Aragon and despite there being no official timing over the test, King was amongst the front runners throughout.

“I was fast at Aragon,” said King. “It is always hard to know what programmes the other teams are running but we were definitely there or thereabouts. I really enjoyed the circuit – it is actually quite physical with long fast corners, but it was very fun to drive.”

King then returned to the Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, a venue he first visited during an FIA Formula Two test in 2009. King was the fastest driver on circuit for much of the test, which included a host of Formula Renault Eurocup and North European Cup teams.

Winter testing concluded at the scene of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona where Jordan worked closely with the team for 3 days.

“Our outright pace could definitely be improved by a tenth or two but these are the reasons for working on these things during testing. MP are a great team and I feel really at home there – we will continue to work on the aspects that can make the car as quick as last year’s champions.”

After enjoying his Christmas and New Year break, King now turns his attentions to the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand. New Zealand will open the International Automobile Federation (FIA) International racing calendar in 2012 with arguably the most concentrated single-seater championship in the world.

In a significant calendar change for the Toyota Racing Series, the annual FIA International rounds will be run back-to-back over five consecutive weekends.

The tight schedule means just four weeks cover the opening round at Teretonga in Invercargill between January 12-15 and the finale, the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild near Palmerston North, between February 9-12.

King will be joined by a host of other talented young racing drivers from around the world in contesting the series and his official website will keep you right up to date on Jordan’s performances down under. Click the calendar page for details on each event or visit www.toyotaracing.co.nz for more information.

Jordan will then return to Europe for his main season responsibilities – details of which will be released shortly.

The country’s premier, fastest and most fiercely competitive single-seater championship, the Toyota Racing Series will be spread over five weekends spanning the period from mid-January to mid-February and visiting tracks at Teretonga, Timaru, Taupo, Hampton Downs and Manfeild.

The one-make, slicks n’ wings formula – marrying a Tatuus-designed carbon-fibre chassis to a 215bhp Toyota engine – will not only guarantee a level playing-field, but should also not be a million miles away from what Jordan has been accustomed to in Formula Renault UK this year. Little wonder, then, that the highly-rated Stoneleigh-based speed demon and BRDC Rising Star is champing at the bit to get out there.

“We first thought about entering the Toyota Racing Series last winter,” he explained, “because it’s the only opportunity to get some decent running in good weather at this time of year, especially with the testing ban in the UK. We ended up going to India instead, which obviously worked out really well for us, but people were still telling us that we should try New Zealand, too, and to be honest, when we looked into it all properly, it seemed a logical thing to do.”

The Indian trip to which Jordan alludes – competing in the MRF Formula Championship – was indeed a tremendously successful one, yielding title glory in front of all the influential F1 movers-and-shakers on the Indian Grand Prix support package in October.

The 17-year-old Princethorpe College student will have an opportunity to similarly impress in New Zealand, for having signed up to race for front-running outfit M2, he will find himself pitched directly against former karting sparring-partner and Ferrari Driver Academy member Raffaele Marciello as his team-mate – and if he can get the better of the well-regarded Italian, then it will significantly enhance Jordan’s reputation and career prospects.

“I’m hoping to gain a lot of seat time, learn some different circuits, build up my level of experience and generally just progress my career a little bit further again,” the Hugo Boss brand ambassador revealed of his objectives. “It’s always important to try to keep your hand in and stay race-sharp and fit over the winter ‘off’ season, and it should be beneficial in terms of helping to hone my racecraft.

“If it’s anything like it looked to be this year, then the competition will certainly be pretty tough, with GP3, F3 and Formula Renault drivers there from across Europe and some extremely good local and Asian drivers as well. I’m definitely anticipating a high-calibre field, and hopefully, that should generate some close and exciting racing.

“I would love to come away with some good results – top rookie or top Brit might be a good starting-point to aim for – and feeling like I’ve really achieved something worthwhile. That would be a good confidence boost ahead of the main 2012 season. It will clearly be a tall order, but if we can do something similar to what we did in India, that would be amazing.”

Competing in the six race Formula Renault winter series, which has been renamed as the Protyre Formula Renault UK Finals Series, King contested a busy quadruple-header at the Norfolk venue this weekend.

Once again his speed was never in doubt as the 17-year-old started two of the four races from the front row, but the bad luck that seemed to plague his UK season continued in the weekend’s opening race.

After starting a solid fourth and holding position in the early running, the talented Warwickshire youngster dropped to 12^th and then 17^th after two separate incidents on the Snetterton 300 layout. King fought back however to claim 11^th at the finish after impressively passing six cars late on.

Seventh would be King’s lowest grid position of the weekend, which he converted into a seventh place finish in race two on Saturday afternoon. King had clawed his way into the top six at one stage but had the position taken away from him late on by the charging Stefan Wackerbauer.

King did however claim an impressive podium on Sunday afternoon after a race long battle with two of his regular season rivals in Josh King and Oliver Rowland. The podium was just reward for King, which was his second trip to the rostrum in British Formula Renault racing. King’s mixed weekend was rounded off late on Sunday, when he failed to finish the final race after battling for another podium with Jake Dennis.

A full report on the ups and downs of King’s weekend will be filed on his official website tomorrow. The final two races of the Protyre Formula Renault UK Finals Series will take place at Rockingham next Saturday.