Jordon Lennox-Lamb is returning ‘home’ to familiar surroundings in 2010, after agreeing a two-year deal to compete on the international karting stage with Birel – and he makes it clear that world domination is very much on the agenda.
Preparing to renew battle in the KF2 class of the fiercely-competitive WSK Euro Series and new WSK World Series – as well as entering a handful of one-off races like the Winter Cup at Lonato in Italy and CIK-FIA Asia-Pacific Championship at Suzuka in Japan – Jordon’s enthusiasm for his ‘homecoming’ is palpable.
The young Bedford star previously competed for Birel in the early phases of his career, but a subsequent switch to fellow Italian manufacturer Top Kart in 2007 would ultimately prove to be sadly misguided, as initial promise slowly deteriorated into persistent issues with performance and consistency.
A 2009 campaign punctuated by moments of brilliance – witness the 17-year-old’s dominant form in the prestigious Bridgestone Cup – was unfortunately also characterised by rather too many instances of ill-fortune, and come season’s end Jordon decided enough was enough.
Clearly still recognising his talent despite the comparative dearth of results, Birel wasted little time in swooping back in to re-sign the driver widely regarded as one of Britain’s brightest rising hopes in the sport – and having suffered from not having had either the luck or the reliability to match his evident raw pace over the last few years, heading into 2010, Jordon is convinced that he now has the complete package underneath him.
“It’s nice to be back with people I know,” he reflected. “In a way I do regret moving to Top Kart, but in terms of my driving it’s probably improved me, simply because I’ve had to work so hard for it. Now I’m back with one of the best teams again, I can hopefully be a bit more chilled-out and concentrate more on my tactics and strategy.
“The team has so many world championships to its name, we’ve got everything in-place that we need and I know I’m always on-form, so the key now is to just keep working on my fitness. Because we’ve got the new Birel engine, it will be difficult to just go out there and blitz it straightaway, but with the package we’ve got and the people I’ve got around me it’s a great opportunity, and I’ll definitely be aiming to win.”
He might be set fair in karting for the time being, but an appearance in the final of the inaugural, international Grand Prix Shootout competition late last year has also clearly whetted Jordon’s appetite for an eventual move into cars. Out of more than 50 entrants, the Kimbolton Road ace defeated the likes of Formula Renault UK front-runner Dean Stoneman, former British F3 competitor Niall Quinn, reigning Star Mazda Series Champion Adam Christodoulou and 2009 British Karting Champions Jordan Chamberlain and Robert Foster-Jones amongst others to make it all the way through to the last ten.
Whilst ultimately narrowly missing out on the grand prize during a Formula BMW test day at Pembrey in Wales, judges admitted that they had been impressed by the Bedfordshire speed demon’s raw pace and potential – suggesting that even if opportunity did not come knocking for him this time around, his name has nevertheless been well-noted.
“I got there knowing nothing about Formula BMW or ‘slicks-and-wings’, so I was a bit nervous,” he confessed. “I was the third driver to go out, and I had seen on the data what I needed to do. I was expecting a lot more sliding and a bit of understeer and oversteer, but the car was pretty balanced and I felt I could push it quite a lot. I slowly built the speed up and then came in and looked at the data again – which a lot of the other drivers weren’t doing – and I could immediately see where I was losing time.
“There were maybe a few little initial mistakes with the gearshifts, but I went out in the next session and improved my cornering speed and my braking to get there in the end, and when I came back in again they said ‘wow, that’s great!’ Unfortunately, it obviously wasn’t enough. I thought it was enough considering I’d never done that sort of thing before, but that’s how it is.
“I still really enjoyed the whole experience – to be able to drive a Formula BMW was fantastic, and I’m really grateful for the opportunity the Grand Prix Shootout gave me. At the moment I’m just concentrating on karting; I’ve got a two-year contract with Birel, so that’s me locked-out for that period, but if the opportunity to move into cars arose then I probably wouldn’t say no.”
