on tough transatlantic weekend

Jordan King ably demonstrated the importance of racking up the points even when things are not going your way in the second meeting of the inaugural WSK World Series across the Pond in America – and his dogged determination means the highly-rated young Warwickshire karting star will enter the Egyptian showdown in October still in the hunt for title glory.

Jordan headed Stateside for the first time sitting fourth in the points table off the back of a strong seventh place and a superb podium finish in the Portuguese curtain-raiser at Portimão in the Algarve – but after playing himself swiftly into the groove during practice by lapping encouragingly inside the top ten at Millville in New Jersey, qualifying would unfortunately go far from according to-plan.

“I didn’t know what any of it would be like,” confessed the 16-year-old Harbury hotshot. “The circuit was pretty good, with a nice layout and a bit of gradient but also really bumpy which made things difficult. It’s a long, narrow track but there are no straights as such, which meant there was never any time to rest – and we lost a tenth of a second between practice and qualifying, which with that level of competition can equate to quite a few positions.”

A lowly and unaccustomed 17th on the KF2 class starting grid – with a lack of power a particular issue – Jordan salvaged three solid results from his heat races in 14th, 12th and 11th respectively, charging briefly into the top ten in the first of them before finding himself unceremoniously shoved aside.

That left the Repton School pupil ninth in the intermediate rankings, higher up than he had expected to be given his difficulties and only half as far away from the front-runners as he had been after qualifying. The new Hugo Boss brand ambassador then went on to produce a gutsy performance against the odds to snatch two points for 11th place in a gruelling pre-final, and the grand final itself promised better still, until a moment’s error ended up costing him dearly.

“We were quicker in the pre-final than in the heats, but still a tiny bit off where we needed to be, which made it a really tough race,” he confessed. “We could just about keep with the others, but to actually fight against them was hard work.

“In the grand final I got a good start up to sixth, but then when I tried to overtake the driver ahead I made a little mistake which slowed down my exit out of the corner; that cost me three or four places into the following corner as a train of karts went past and dropped me down into the pack behind. I reckon I could maybe have finished as high as seventh without that, but 11th was still decent points.”

After chilling out following the racing with a couple of days in New York – time enough to take in the legendary Big Apple’s iconic Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty and to be awed by the sheer size of Central Park – Jordan was left to reflect upon a weekend of damage limitation from which he had rescued seven points in trying circumstances...points that could prove significant indeed come season’s end.

The WSK World Series will conclude at Sharm El Sheik in just under three months’ time, and with no competitor having eked out an unassailable advantage in the standings and the 42 points separating sixth-placed Jordan from the top of the table less than is on offer for a grand final victory, the JRP-run speed demon knows all he can do is to focus firmly upon himself, and let everything else simply take its course.

“We scored some points at least, and we’re still high up in the championship and within shouting distance of the leaders – so we can still get a top result,” he asserted. “The racing in WSK is always really close – no-one has won a race by a big margin yet – and that is reflected in the points situation, too.

“Obviously I would love to win the championship, but that will be hard and a more realistic result now would be to finish inside the top three – that’s definitely on I would say, and that’s what we’ll be aiming for at Sharm El Sheik. I’m feeling confident, because we know we’re quick enough. We still need to rely on other drivers finishing lower down in Egypt, but all I can do personally is to go for the double win.”