As he continues his car racing apprenticeship in the 2011 Formula Renault UK Championship, highly-rated young Warwickshire star Jordan King learned some valuable lessons and picked up an excellent top six finish in round two at Donington Park – leaving him looking to the future with justifiable optimism.
Following a solid debut yielding eighth and ninth places in the Brands Hatch curtain-raiser – spoiled only by set-up issues during qualifying – karting graduate Jordan headed to Donington Park bidding to take a step forward, and it was a target that he would confidently accomplish.
“I was disappointed after Brands Hatch,” mused the 17-year-old Stoneleigh-based speed demon. “It hadn’t been the best start to the season, and that was largely down to qualifying – so the main focus for Donington was to qualify better. I really like the track – it’s a mega circuit! It’s really hard to get the downhill run through the Old Hairpin right; the minimum speed at the apex is something like 112mph, which is ridiculously quick, and it was a bit hairy going in there at times..!
“We had tested at Donington during the winter, but in the torrential rain, so Thursday practice was my first proper run in the dry – and in Formula Renault UK, you only really get two sessions in the car to get used to the track and get the set-up sorted ahead of the race weekend.
“In the first session, we went out on old tyres and ended up only 17 hundredths off the pace, which was encouraging; we then put new tyres on for the second session, but we didn’t really get a long run because of a red flag. Still, we closed to less than a tenth off and were the quickest of the four Manor Competition drivers, and I was happy with our speed and consistency and felt like we were in good shape for the weekend.”
Qualifying the following day, however, would end in frustration, with sixth position for race one and just 11th for race two, as set-up woes and a flat-spotted tyre scuppered what Jordan contended could have been a top five starting spot for the second outing.
“I was very disappointed with that outcome after the speed we had shown in practice,” confessed the BRDC Rising Star. “I think the main problem in the first session was that I didn’t get my tyres up to temperature before I started to push – they were only at about 85 per cent of their optimum temperature. That meant I didn’t get the best out of them and it left me five tenths off, so that’s just another lesson to learn for the future. I’m on a learning curve at the end of the day, and it’s all good experience.”
That much is indisputable, and after narrowly losing out to team-mate Josh Hill early on in the opening encounter as he found his corner exit speed compromised by the tight line held by the driver in front, Jordan went on to take the chequered flag seventh – second out of the Graduate Cup entrants and producing competitive lap times along the way. And race two would yield an altogether feistier performance again.
“I was just aiming to make up as many places as I could from where I was starting!” quipped the Princethorpe College student. “I managed to get past Mitchell Gilbert into the first corner, but then coming out of the Craner Curves towards the Old Hairpin, someone had spun ahead. I had to slow down to get through the gap, but when I went to accelerate again I was still in too high a gear so it wouldn’t pull away and I lost time there. After that, I chased down, caught and overtook Oscar King, but the gap ahead to Josh was too big to close.”
Be that as it may, sixth place indubitably demonstrated that Jordan is moving in the right direction, and fastest lap and the runner-up laurels again amongst the Graduate Cup contenders was positive indeed. Sitting seventh in the overall title chase and a close and challenging second in the Graduate Cup heading next to the ultra-fast Thruxton circuit for round three, the Hugo Boss brand ambassador’s tail is palpably up.
“The first few races are all about making sure I learn as much as I can without making too many mistakes,” he affirmed in conclusion, “and then over the second half of the season, I can put all that into practice. Hopefully that will be the trend for the season, and then towards the end we can start getting some podiums.
“I really enjoyed Thruxton when we tested there over the winter; I came in after my first session with a huge smile on my face and just said, ‘it’s brilliant!’ It’s pretty much flat-out in seventh gear the whole way round the lap in the dry with an average speed of about 135mph, which is simply insane! The goal for the weekend has to be to keep learning and come away with a couple of decent finishes; it’s one of the harder circuits on the calendar without a doubt – but one that I’m definitely looking forward to!”
