Jordan King has taken another step towards graduating from karting into car racing with an impressive test for front-running Formula Ford outfit Fluid Motorsport – with team principal Lindsay Allen left waxing lyrical afterwards about the highly-rated young Warwickshire speed demon’s potential.
Having previously tried out Formula Renault and Formula Palmer Audi single-seaters, Jordan headed to the legendary Brands Hatch circuit in Kent to get behind the wheel of a Formula Ford, as he evaluates his options with regard to an anticipated move into cars in 2011. Although the day was somewhat truncated by a series of red flag session stoppages, the Harbury-based hotshot palpably enjoyed his experience.
“It was the first time I’d ever been out in a Formula Ford, and it was very different to anything else I’d driven before,” he confessed. “It’s all mechanical grip, so it’s not that big a jump as without any aerodynamic grip it feels a lot more like a kart. There’s as much grip in the fast stuff as in the slow stuff, so in that sense it’s a lot easier to get your head around. In a car that has aerodynamic grip, you get to the fast stuff and then just take your brain out to gain an extra 5mph...
“It was the first time I’d been to Brands Hatch, too – I’d never even gone there to watch before. I found it to be quite a good circuit, and I got to grips with it pretty quickly. It’s short but very interesting to drive, and there’s a lot of gradient to it with camber and off-camber, which brings out other characteristics of the car.”
Whilst he clearly feels ready now to take the next step in his burgeoning motorsport career, for the time being Jordan’s focus remains firmly on the last five outings of his 2010 karting campaign, including the closing round of the British Super 1 Series at PF International, the last two meetings in the WSK Master Series at Val Vibrata and Castelletto in Italy and the WSK World Series finale at Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt.
Before all of that, though, the 16-year-old has the most important event of all to concentrate his efforts on – the prestigious, fiercely-contested CIK-FIA World Championship at Zuera in Spain, with no fewer than 125 KF2 class entrants all bidding to lift the coveted crown. Zuera was the scene of Jordan’s European debut just under two years ago – resulting in an eye-catching podium finish – and having competed around the fast-and-flowing circuit on several more occasions since, he is evidently relishing the challenge that lies ahead.
“It should be really good,” enthused the Princethorpe College student. “All of the top drivers internationally will be there, and a number of drivers have stepped down from the Super KF class for it too, which will make the competition even tougher. I think it will probably be one of the hardest races I’ve ever done, but I should have as good a chance as just about anyone else – and hopefully we can come away with a really good result.”
And beyond that, Allen – who co-founded Norfolk-based Fluid Motorsport with fellow ex-Van Diemen engineer Roger Littin in late 2004 – is unequivocal that Jordan has all the necessary attributes to turn a much-titled karting career into one that yields every bit as much success in cars.
“I think he did really well,” he underlined. “It wasn’t an easy day, with a lot of other cars on the track which meant a lot of traffic, but Jordan managed to keep out of the way and find himself some clear laps and just improved all the time. His lap times were coming down and down and getting to the kind of highly respectable level that some of the drivers who have won races in the championship are at.
“You really learn how to race wheel-to-wheel in Formula Ford, whereas drivers who step straight into winged cars miss out on that. The car moves around a lot, and you have to get used to the fact that if you want to drive it quickly, the back end will step out – it’s not like jumping into a winged car where it’s pinned down. You need to have far better car control than you might for other types of single-seater.
“When drivers come out of karting, a lot of them get in the car and because it has such a lot of grip it takes them a couple of days to get used to it, but Jordan adapted very well and nothing seemed to faze him at all. He listened closely to what our driver coach and everybody else told him. I’ve taken a look at what he has been doing in karting and the cars he has tested, and I think he’s got a lot of potential. I’ve tested many lads straight out of karting, but I think Jordan could do very well. He’s ready to step up to cars, without a doubt.”
With a number of leading single-seater teams having expressed interest in securing Jordan’s services, a decision on his future is expected within the next month.
