but he vows to make next outing a qualified success
Jordan King learned a number of valuable lessons as he made his European bow in the KF2 class in the curtain-raiser for the 2010 WSK Euro Series at La Conca in the Puglia region of southern Italy – and as he looks forward now, the young Warwickshire karting star has vowed to make his next outing a qualified success in more ways than one.
With an eye-catching ‘rookie’ campaign on the international stage under his belt and having stepped things up a notch from KF3 to the more powerful and fiercely-competitive KF2 level, Jordan returned to La Conca – scene of a fast but luckless debut this time 12 months ago – with high hopes. Unfortunately, to a certain extent history would insist on repeating itself.
“I was obviously aiming to get the best result possible,” the 16-year-old affirmed, “but I was aware that it was my first proper race meeting in KF2 in Europe at a track I had only been to once before. I was also up against drivers who had been doing it for several years, and against whom I had never previously competed. Given that, I thought a single-digit finishing position would be good.
“I like the circuit – it’s really demanding both technically and physically, and really hard to get right. Every aspect to it is difficult – it’s one of the toughest tracks on the calendar, I’d say. In testing we were really quick and topped the timesheets in some of the sessions, though, so it was all looking good.
“The competition was really strong, because everyone was lapping on very similar times, but we were in the top ten overall so I was quite happy with that. Unfortunately, I don’t think my qualifying lap was the best I could have done. I could probably have gone a little bit quicker and been in the top five in my group. The kart felt good but not quite perfect, and my lap was a good one but just didn’t feel 100 per cent.”
Confident of moving forwards on race day, 19th position out of the 83 contenders was nonetheless a none-too-shabby start, and better still was the knowledge that Jordan was more than capable of battling up inside the top ten. A close third place in his opening heat race was a strong result, but a misjudgement in heat two saw him plummet all the way to the foot of the top 20, from where he got his head down and doggedly fought his way back through again to recover to a damage-limiting 12th at the chequered flag.
Being unceremoniously punted off at the beginning of heat three left the Harbury ace plum last by some margin and able to make little impression, despite lapping on a par with the leaders, whilst a solid fifth position in his fourth heat saw to it that Jordan progressed safely and comfortably through to the finals, with the abolition of the second-chance ‘repêchage’ this year ramping up the pressure in the knowledge that too few points from the heats means spending the remainder of the weekend sat on the sidelines. With only 34 finalists, 49 drivers – almost 60 per cent of the entrants – would be taking an early bath.
“I probably could have finished second in the first one,” recounted the Repton School pupil, “but I decided to try to save my tyres a bit over the last couple of laps and so just cruised around without pushing too hard. I was running fifth in the second heat when I went for a move on the driver ahead, but I was a bit too late on the brakes and locked up the rears, which caused the engine to cut out. I then got knocked onto the grass which left me with muck all over my tyres, which it took a couple of laps to get rid of. After that, I had to focus on just fighting my way through again.
“I felt under a bit of pressure after my two bad heats, but then when we looked at the points situation we knew we only really needed to finish in the top 15 in heat four to be sure of getting through to the finals. Once I got into fifth, I had a bit of a gap behind so decided I would just try to stay there; because everyone was so close on times, if there was even a small gap to the driver ahead it was really hard to close it down – it takes a long time to catch someone when the difference between you is only a tenth of a second a lap! I had to try to strike a balance between pushing and being conservative on the tyres, or else they would have gone off too quickly.”
Not easy by any means, it was a task Jordan managed to perfection, earning himself 16th spot in the intermediate rankings – though frustratingly, just one more point from his heats would have been enough to put him 12th. The pre-final, however, began badly indeed.
“I knew I was quick enough to get into the top ten, so I was just hoping for a good start and to then move my way up the order,” he related. “Unfortunately, I anticipated the starting lights wrong. You have to stay within the ‘tramlines’ until the lights go out, but I saw a gap beyond them and went for it – only to then realise that the lights hadn’t actually gone out. I dived back in again but it was too late.
“They pulled out a board to inform me that I had a ten-second penalty, so I knew I had to try to make up as much time as I could during the race, but equally I also still needed to look after the tyres for the grand final. I couldn’t go all-out, because that would have ruined my chances for later – it was a delicate balancing act again. I finished 13th on-the-road but the penalty left me 22nd; that was so annoying, because from 13th on the grid for the grand final I could have done a lot more than from 22nd.
“I got a decent start and made up a couple of places early on in the grand final. I was behind a big group of karts and it was all looking good, but again, as we were all so close on times moving forwards was difficult, because you would pass someone and then they would lunge you back again shortly after – you could never get away from anyone quickly enough to prevent them from attacking you straight back. Sometimes it was just a case of hoping people ahead would stumble over each other.”
Twelfth at the close and recognising the errors that had held him back over the course of the weekend, Jordan is adamant that he will not be making the same mistakes again when the WSK Euro Series reconvenes for seconds out, round two at the end of the month at Lonato close to Garda, again in Italy. Confident in his Energy chassis and with the full support of his JRP team behind him, the clear goal next time out is to put into practice all that he has learned – and demonstrate his progress by way of on-track success.
“Nailing qualifying is the main thing,” he mused in conclusion. “You need to be able to set a time in the first three laps to get the best out of the tyres, and then save them as much as you can for the rest of the weekend. It’s a lot harder racing in Europe than it is in the UK – if you make even one tiny error, it can ruin your weekend. I was up in fifth in heat two when I just made that little mistake under braking, and the whole weekend was put onto the back foot from then on.
“It was a hard learning curve, but some useful lessons learned. Next time I will be able to manage the tyre wear better, and I’ll make sure I get a quick lap under my belt earlier on in qualifying. In KF2, I’m up against professional works drivers and people who have been racing for ten years or more and so have much more experience than me. I know we’re quick enough to win already, but the aim now is to iron out the little bits holding me back to be able to fight consistently at the front in every meeting.”
