June 21st, 2009 King stuns European rivals by storming from back-to-front for podium finish
Young Warwickshire karting star Jordan King produced arguably the finest performance of his fledgling career to-date to overcome all manner of adversity and storm to an outstanding podium finish in the latest round of the hotly-fought 2009 WSK International Series at Genk – and afterwards he warned his rivals: “I’m ready to win!”
Jordan is in only his maiden campaign of international competition this year when the majority of his 81 competitors in KF3 have at least a season already under their belt – but he is far from letting it hold him back. Already established as the leading British driver in the class in WSK – ahead of such as defending British KF3 Champion Jake Dennis and Red Bull-backed Alexander Albon – he headed to Genk with high hopes, and boasting a strong record around the popular, fast and flowing Belgian circuit having set pole position there in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow (now Formula Kart Stars) last year. Unfortunately, things would swiftly go wrong…
“Thursday practice was wet and we were really fast,” he related, “so we were happy with that. On the Friday it was dry and we weren’t quite so quick, but we were still inside the top ten so we were feeling pretty confident. The conditions were really weird, though; the track could be really slippery – almost like it had been raining – for the first three laps or so, and then it would grip up again. That was pretty hard to get used to, especially to begin with, and if you go off-line round Genk you lose all grip for a couple of laps because of all the dirt you pick up.
“Then in Saturday morning practice I binned it against a marshal’s post; that left the kart a bit bent and mangled and I just felt a bit of an idiot really – I couldn’t believe I’d done that! We didn’t have time to straighten it out again before qualifying, which meant it felt like a completely different kart – round right-handers I was on full-lock and it was barely turning, whilst I could practically let go of the wheel through left-handers and it would just steer itself round! I was really annoyed at being 40th when we could and should have been inside the top ten if it hadn’t been for my accident.”
Chastened by his mistake, Jordan would go on to produce a series of solid showings in his four heat races, with a highlight of fifth place – a scant five hundredths of a second shy of fourth – in heat two and competitive lap times throughout. After his exhaust was ripped off by a first corner assault from behind in heat three, however, he entered the last of them in the knowledge that he couldn’t afford to take any risks if he was to qualify for the finals, but equally knowing that he needed to finish high enough to be sure of making it through.
As a balancing act, he pulled it off to perfection, mastering a tricky situation to come home tenth after lapping quicker than the race-winner along the way – and meaning he just scraped through as the 28th driver out of 28 to advance directly on to the finals without having to worry about the risky ‘second-chance’ repêchage. And with the heavens opening shortly before the pre-final, his progress was quite simply meteoric.
“It was quite difficult to tell if we were going to make it through or not, because usually the cut-off is at about 48 points, and we were on exactly 48 points after the heats!” the 15-year-old related of his understandable relief after his ‘close shave’. “I knew we could get up quite high in the pre-final, so it was all just about how many places I could get in the first couple of laps when the field was still bunched up quite tightly, and I got up to eighth within just two laps – it was ridiculous really! After that everyone spaced out really quickly, though. I picked a few more off through the race, but we were still struggling for bottom-end power and balance with the grip levels out there.”
Fifth place given where he had started was an ominous result, but with the rain having abated in time for the grand final and half a dry line appearing, all 34 slick-shod drivers were facing something of a journey into the unknown on the opening lap. Nonetheless, hopes were high in the JRP Maranello camp that Jordan could take the fight to the leading contenders for victory – until turn one, at least, when Mathieu Jaminet intervened…
“We were halfway through the first corner when I got hit from behind and spun round on the exit,” the Harbury ace recounted. “After that I was facing the wrong way with all the traffic coming towards me, but luckily someone knocked me back in the right direction again and everyone else was able to avoid me – if someone had gone into me it would likely have been game over there and then.
“That dropped me to dead last and left me really frustrated, but at the same time I knew we could still get a half-decent result because we were quick enough – though I never actually believed we’d be able to get as high up as we did. We were actually helped later around the first lap by a massive crash at the chicane at the end of the back straight that took ten drivers out ahead of me and put us 19th, and after that I just focussed on catching and picking off the rest.
“If there had been two more laps I think we could have won to be honest. The second final is only 15 laps at Genk rather than 20 because it’s a long circuit; if it had been the usual number of laps it would have been wicked!”
In changeable conditions that wrong-footed many, it was beyond any doubt a truly awesome performance, taking Jordan up to third place at the chequered flag and reducing what had been a gaping ten-second deficit to the leader at the end of lap one to just 3.6 seconds 14 laps later, and barely a second shy of the runner-up spot. Despite having to fight his way through traffic, the Repton School pupil was consistently as much as a second a lap faster than any other driver on the circuit, with his best effort eight tenths out of reach of that of the race-winner and an incredible 1.4 seconds clear of anybody else, an eternity in karting terms.
His sheer pace and consistency were breathtaking, and more than atoned for his practice mishap. The lowest of the six-strong British contingent in qualifying, he was comfortably the best-placed at the end of the weekend, and his phenomenal performance marked the second time in as many weekends that Jordan has had to battle back from a disastrous start to proceedings to conquer the podium in sensational fashion. The only slight disappointment is in wondering, had he not been tagged at the start of the grand final, what might have been…
Still, the result has moved the 2008 British Super 1 Vice-Champion up to fourth in the title standings, top Brit and closing on the trio of Danil Kyvat, Nyck de Vries and Carlos Sainz Jnr ahead of him, having out-scored all three of them at Genk. What’s more, whilst he may never have been to Salbris in France before – scene of round five of seven on the WSK calendar at the end of July – that has failed to deter him in the past.
“Given the smash in practice and getting spun around at the start of the race, it was very satisfying to get a podium,” Jordan concluded, “but it was disappointing that we got mugged like we did, because we were just so much faster and would probably have won by miles. There’s still a little bit of time to find in the dry in terms of consistency, but in the wet we’re ready to win!”