as Cumbrian charge nets him season-best
Jordan King headed north to Rowrah for the fourth round of seven in the hotly-fought national Super 1 Series needing a strong result to keep his tilt at the KF2 class laurels on-track – and lightning-fast pace and a superb double podium finish saw to it that he left again still very much in with a shout of British title glory.
Jordan had successfully put a torrid run of ill-fortune behind him with a return to the rostrum in third place in the preceding meeting at Nutts Corner in Ireland, and as he continued to adapt to his new kart – one bearing both the initials and input of leading F1 star Robert Kubica – the highly-rated young Warwickshire hotshot was in optimistic mood regarding his prospects heading to Cumbria.
“Rowrah is a difficult circuit to get right,” he revealed. “You’ve got to strike a balancing-act between attacking every corner and keeping quite relaxed at the same time. It’s a really hard track to lead around, too, because there are no real straights to pull away on and it’s so tight that it’s easy to follow people.
“The last time I had raced there was in KF3, but I’ve been quick at Rowrah pretty much every time I’ve been there. I know the circuit quite well, but I’m still getting used to how the ‘RK’ handles at different tracks. I’d only been out on it for four days in total before the weekend, so there’s a little bit still to be learned in that respect and there’s maybe another tenth of a second or so to get out of it in terms of the way I need to drive it, but I was feeling pretty confident.
“In practice we were up there, and in qualifying we were the quickest until the last lap, when we came back into the pits and two other drivers went a little bit faster. We knew we had the pace, though, and we felt comfortable with everything, so we were still quite happy with third – I might have been able to go a touch quicker, but it wasn’t a bad lap by any means. Half a tenth is nothing really.”
That it isn’t, and with his focus firmly on the races – where the points are handed out – Jordan notched up a win and a runner-up spot from his two heats, easing away in the first of them to prevail by just shy of a second, and shadowing Danish rival Jacob Nørtoft all the way to the chequered flag in the other, setting a better fastest lap time than his quarry but falling just short of overhauling him. Still, having already done enough to secure pole position for the first of the two finals, he never needed to.
“I got a good start and was able to pull away by about ten kart-lengths to begin with,” the Harbury ace recalled of the opening final. “I then just tried to maintain that gap, but Nørtoft and Billy Albone worked together to catch me up. They closed me right down towards the end, and when I made a small mistake Nørtoft was able to get right onto my bumper.
“They both got past me, but by the time I got Billy back, Jacob had been able to edge away by a few kart-lengths. I was starting to catch him again after that, but I just ran out of laps... I should have won if I hadn’t made the mistake, so I was annoyed with myself for that.”
Having led 16 of the race’s 21 laps, it was understandably frustrating for Jordan to be mounting only the second step of the podium rather than the highest one, but finishing less than half a second shy of victory nonetheless marked an excellent result – the 16-year-old’s best of the season to-date. And the second final later in the day would culminate in another champagne-popping moment.
“I tried to go around the outside into the first corner, because that’s a right-hander but the next one is a left,” recounted the JRP-run speed demon, “but it didn’t quite pay off and I fell down to third. After that I had a bit of a fight with Nørtoft for second and overtook him, but he then got me back and because we had been battling, Albone had been able to establish quite a lead.
“After that, as we were all very similar on pace it wasn’t easy to gain ground, because the gaps stayed reasonably static. We had a small problem with the engine, too, which meant we were a bit down on power. That didn’t help either, and overall I was disappointed with third.
“It was still definitely my best meeting of the year so far, though – the first round of Super 1 was a bit of a nightmare, in the second our engine blew and we missed testing for the third due to my exams. Everything finally came together this time, and it was encouraging that the pace was there.”
Convinced that he would have been able to take the fight to Nørtoft but for his engine issue, Jordan nonetheless sent out a warning to his competitors that he will be a force to be reckoned with indeed over the remainder of the Super 1 campaign. That will kick off at Glan Y Gors in North Wales in early August, but prior to that the Repton School pupil has another challenge to attend to – his participation in the inaugural WSK World Series, taking in races at Portimão in Portugal, New Jersey in the USA and Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt...and what looks set to be a veritable journey into the unknown.
“I’ve never raced at Glan Y Gors before, but I tested there recently for the first time and I enjoyed the circuit,” he concluded. “It has a lot of different features to it and the gradients are quite similar to Rowrah, so I think it should generate some good racing. We were pretty quick in testing, but because we were the only people there, there was nobody else to measure ourselves against. We made progress at Rowrah, though, and we need to keep that momentum going. We’re on better kit now and I think I’m driving better than before, too – so a win is on the cards.
“The WSK World Series should be really good, and it’s always interesting to go to different circuits. The round at Portimão will really be in the international spotlight, because it’s on the same bill as the FIA World Touring Car Championship. We will see what happens, but obviously I always aim to do the best I can – and ultimately I’d like to bring home another trophy.”
