He might now be nearing the end of what has been an impressive karting career, but Jordan King is making sure that he saves the best ‘til last, and a magnificent victory on the international stage in the 2010 WSK Master Series finale at Castelletto in Italy was enough to earn him a superb second place in the standings of one of the most fiercely-contested championships in Europe.

With a strong previous record around the challenging circuit close to Parma – one characterised by a succession of fast chicanes and hairpins – the highly-rated young Warwickshire star was in bullish spirits about his prospects of taking the fight to the likes of former British and European Champion Chris Lock and leading Dutch driver Max Klinkby-Silver. High-calibre adversaries with well-established – even fearsome – international reputations they might be, but then, Jordan isn’t intimidated by anybody.

“It was pretty open between second and seventh in the championship going into the weekend, with six of us separated by just 17 points, and 65 still available,” he explained. “To finish the season second was definitely the aim, and given how quick we’ve been recently, I was feeling pretty confident about my chances.

“Unfortunately, after showing well in practice, in qualifying I didn’t quite get the best out of the kart or situation and ended up 11th. I was surprised to be so low given we were only a tenth of a second off the pace, but at least it wasn’t a lot to have to claw back. It does make it that bit harder starting further down, but I knew I would have the speed in the races and overtaking isn’t too problematic at Castelletto.”

So close was the competition, indeed, that the top 24 competitors out of the 41 KF2 class entrants were blanketed by barely three tenths – or, to put it another way, the blink of an eye – and Jordan did well to recover vital ground in two of his three heat races.

An excellent third place – and fastest lap by a country mile – in the first of them was unfortunately followed by a start-line mêlée in heat two, with the 16-year-old finding himself ploughed into by an unsighted rival within seconds of the lights having gone out, leaving his Birel chassis heavily damaged and requiring a wholesale repair job to be able to get out again in time for heat three.

The Stoneleigh-based speed demon would repay his team’s efforts in style, though, as he rocketed up the order into fifth at the chequered flag – with the race’s fastest lap once more to his credit – to place 14th in the intermediate rankings and therefore also on the pre-final grid.

“The outside line in the middle of the field isn’t the greatest place to start, because it’s a danger area for crashes,” he acknowledged. “One of my main objectives was to just get round the first few corners safely and try to progress from there. I did that, and then we were really quick coming through and ended up fifth.”

Another comfortable fastest lap again served to underline Jordan’s raw pace, and he subsequently found himself promoted to fourth following a disqualification ahead, snaring him a potentially vital extra point in his quest to snatch the championship runner-up laurels. It was in the grand final, however, that the lion’s share of the points would be awarded, and courtesy of a tremendously mature and composed performance, the Princethorpe College student made sure he secured the maximum haul possible.

“I held position through the first few corners, and then going into one of the hairpins Klinkby-Silver ran into the back of Lock, which sent them both a bit wide and I got through into second,” he recalled. “Three laps in I took the lead from Marco Moretti, but then he re-passed me and pulled out a little bit of a gap. When my kart came on, I started to reel him back in again, and I overtook him five or six laps later.

“I couldn’t shake Moretti off, though, and was under constant pressure after that, with only about five metres in-between us – I knew he was always just sat there about two tenths of a second behind me, so very much within striking-distance. I tried not to think about it too much and concentrated on taking my normal lines, but on the last lap I looked over my shoulder and saw he was still there, so I just made sure I went into the corners hard and made no mistakes.”

It has not been the easiest of campaigns for Jordan in 2010 – or, as he confesses, ‘a bit of a nightmare’ at times, with ill-fortune and unreliability seeming to track his every move on occasion – but a late-season switch to the Piers Sexton-run PSR outfit has vaulted him right back into contention, and revealing that he feels ‘a lot more confident now in the equipment underneath me’, second place in the championship made it very much a case of mission accomplished.

“It felt so good to take the chequered flag to win,” concluded the Hugo Boss brand ambassador. “It was definitely my best result of the year and it feels like it’s been coming for a few weeks now, so it was good to get it at last. After all the bad luck and problems we’ve had this year, to finally get a win feels even more special.”