to keep British runner-up hopes alive
Not for the first time this season, Jordan King found himself afflicted by engine problems during the fifth round of the hotly-contested national Super 1 Series at Glan Y Gors, but despite his disadvantage, the impressive young Warwickshire karting star overcame the odds to battle his way grittily to a podium finish come the end of the weekend.
Though he had never raced at Glan Y Gors before, Jordan swiftly came to appreciate the demanding North Wales circuit – “I really like the track; it’s quite challenging, undulating and good fun to drive with a bit of everything, and in testing we were quick and made good progress,” he reported – and rapidly proved to be on the leading pace in both wet and dry conditions.
Maturely electing to play it safe on a wet-but-drying track surface in qualifying – given that Glan Y Gors is a punishing circuit in terms of tyre degradation – the 16-year-old deemed slicks too much of a gamble in such changeable climatic conditions and wound up fourth-fastest, barely two tenths of a second shy of the best-placed grooved-shod competitor having gone a little too low on the gearing and too high on the tyre pressures aboard his KF2 class Birel mount.
Whilst the eventual pole-sitter proved that slicks had ultimately been a risk worth taking, Jordan knew that having saved his would leave him in better shape for the dry weather forecast for later on that day and Sunday’s finals. And despite his engine betraying its first sign of weakness in the opening heat race, the highly-rated Harbury hotshot nonetheless emerged on top in a thrilling duel with championship leader Jacob Nørtoft for third place by the narrowest margin of eight hundredths of a second.
“I had a good fight with Jacob, and it was good to get one over on the championship leader,” he acknowledged, “but being down-on-power made it hard work. The second heat was even more difficult; a couple of drivers had newer tyres on than us and were coming through, and I didn’t want to push too hard and risk using up my tyres too much before the finals. I was fifth and setting competitive lap times, but with three laps to go I came into the pits to stop and save the tyres, because quite a few other drivers had dropped out by then and finishing where we were would not have made any difference to our ranking of P3.
“In the first final, I had a good first lap to move into second, but then just three corners later the engine seized. I had been really quick and catching the leader and everything felt good, so that was really annoying. We struggled with engine problems all weekend, to be fair, and even when we got it right we still didn’t have as much power as everyone else with the same motor seemed to have. We were faster than the rest of the field through the corners, but they would edge away slightly down the straights, which was frustrating.”
Indeed it was, and worse still it left Jordan to begin the second final from 11th and plum last on the starting grid. Admirably undeterred, the Repton School pupil went on to produce an eye-catching charge through the field to the bottom step of the rostrum, setting a dominant fastest lap time along the way for good measure.
“We still had the pace so I was confident of being able to come through,” he affirmed. “In the first couple of laps everyone was defending a lot, which they don’t usually do at the start, and that made it difficult to overtake and meant I just had to launch my kart up the inside of people. Then things calmed down a bit and I was able to attack more and move through the field.
“It’s quite hard to overtake at Glan Y Gors; there are some good opportunities, and others that are possible as long as you get a really good run on the driver ahead. Even then, you have to be careful they don’t push you over the kerb or that they can come straight back at you again – but I just went for it! When I got up to fifth there was a bit of a gap ahead, but I caught third and fourth with three laps to go and passed them both.
“Despite the lack of power, we were still really quick which shows that the team and kart are both good. For the engine to seize in the first final when the points start being handed out was a pain, but our corner speed was encouraging and it was good to bounce back and get a result in the second final the way we did.”
Having gained a spot to fourth in the title standings – just 14 points adrift of second place – the crown itself may now be a long shot with only two meetings left at Whilton Mill and PF International, but the Hugo Boss brand ambassador has vowed to keep on pushing regardless.
That he is still within touching distance of the runner-up laurels at all given the run of poor reliability that has hampered his efforts this year is quite an achievement in itself – with similar engine woes having cost him potential victories at both Larkhall and Nutts Corner earlier on in the campaign – as having been quick just about everywhere, Jordan’s bid for glory has been undone rather by circumstances beyond his control.
“We can still catch Nørtoft if we win every remaining final and he has a couple of bad results, but second is a more realistic goal now and very much up for grabs,” mused the JRP-run speed demon in conclusion. “Last time we were at Whilton we had two fourth places, I won there in Mini Max and the chassis was very quick there in Formula Kart Stars last year, so there’s clearly potential and it should be good for us – and a lack of power doesn’t harm you as much as around some other tracks either.
“I’ve had good results at PF before too, winning Kartmasters in the dry and proving really quick in the rain. I’m not looking too closely at the championship anymore, to be honest – I just need to get four solid results now. We’ve had a few bad finals where we’ve either broken down or things haven’t gone too well, so the target is to stay up there and hopefully finish in the top two in every final from now to the end of the season.”
