Jordan King’s full report is here.

In KF2 Max Goff won the first final then got third in the second. James Godbehere, after showing real speed all weekend, came from grid 9 in the first final to lead only to have an engine problem with half a lap left. Then he had more engine trouble at the start of the second final, but it shows the speed of the Maranello Kart in the KF categories.

In Junior Rotax Andy King was third in the first final but dropped back at the start in the main final before fighting his way back up many places.

Jordan arrived at the Lincolnshire circuit in the midst of a fine vein of form, with two recent podium finishes in the fiercely-contested WSK International Series on European shores assuredly confirming his status as a leading contender on the international stage.

With the winner of the one-off Kartmasters meeting earning the honour of carrying the coveted ‘GP’ plate on their kart for the remainder of the season, everybody entered the weekend with just a single goal – but only one driver would succeed in lifting the laurels.

“Over the winter we never really did that well there, and Super 1 wasn’t great either,” the Harbury ace related. “People always say it’s one of the hardest tracks in the country to win at, and I hadn’t won a major final there before.

“The competition in the two national series, Formula Kart Stars (FKS) and Super 1, is always tough as it is, and people tend to step up a level for Kartmasters – but we had done quite well there last year, when I won the pre-final and finished fifth in the grand final, my best Kartmasters result so far, so I was feeling pretty confident.”

Ignoring the advantage of the FKS regulars – who had competed at PF only a fortnight earlier – and insisting that he was ‘just concentrating on myself’, it was an approach that would serve Jordan well. His Stuart Wright-prepared Maranello chassis may generally work to its optimum in the hotter climes of Europe, but it was not to be found wanting on a mid-summer weekend in Britain either, as its driver pipped defending British Champion Jake Dennis to the top spot on the 25-strong starting grid – composed of the very crème de la crème of KF3 class competition – by the narrowest of margins.

“We only had three practice sessions, but we were quite quick in all of them,” the 15-year-old continued. “We changed the kart a little bit, and in qualifying I put it on pole by one hundredth of a second. I think it was the first pole I’ve ever had actually, which was a really good feeling!

“The Maranello doesn’t usually work quite as well in the cooler conditions in the UK, but also we hadn’t been on the right chassis for the past couple of races either, which had led to a lack of grip. The one we had for Kartmasters was much better, with more all-round grip. PF is quite grippy as it is compared to other UK circuits, too, so it was just about getting the kart balanced, and it felt good throughout the weekend.”

Inclement conditions during the two heat races failed to derail Jordan’s challenge, as he overcame a less-than-perfect set-up in the latter encounter to snatch a win and a second place – putting him firmly on pole position for the pre-final.

“In the second heat it began raining halfway through,” explained the 2008 British Mini Max Vice-Champion, “and we were on a dry set-up because it was dry when the race had started. That made it a real struggle when it began raining; it was pretty slippery out there, with not massive amounts of grip.

“I just had to drive according to what was underneath me, and I was trying not to push beyond what the kart was capable of in the circumstances and focussing on getting the best result possible out of it. We just managed to keep second in the end…”

If it was a close call – clinging onto the runner-up spot by a mere four tenths of a second – then the pre-final was a far more comfortable affair, at least after Jordan had overcome an early setback.

“It was dry for the finals the following day, so I was feeling quite confident provided I could just get away at the start and build up a bit of a gap,” he confessed. “It took quite a while for the kart to come on and we dropped back to fourth initially, but when it did come on I was able to get into the lead and just pull away.

“The grand final went pretty similarly; I fell back to fourth early on before regaining the lead, but then Jake got into second and started closing on me towards the end. He was very quick and was applying a lot of pressure, but I always felt in control.”

As he crossed the line to take the all-important chequered flag barely six hundredths of a second to the good, Jordan punched the air in jubilation, in the knowledge that not only had he defeated the defending British champion and all others for that matter, but he had also added perhaps his most glittering accolade to-date to what is fast becoming an increasingly impressive career CV.

“I can’t really describe what it was like,” reflected the overwhelmed Repton School pupil. “I can’t put into words how it felt to cross the line – I was just going crazy! We rocked! It still hasn’t really sunk in yet…”

In KF3 Jordan King was third for most of both finals but was just taken by Guilherme Silva near the end.

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!”

Close to Banbury, Shenington might be Jordan’s nearest circuit, but having never competed in the club championship there he is not afforded the same advantage that ‘local specialists’ often enjoy. Still, with pole position there last year in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow – now the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars – fourth place in Super 1 in 2008 and sixth position in the 2009 Winter Series, it is a track at which he boasts a good record.

“I like Shenington,” the 15-year-old acknowledged. “It’s a fast circuit and one that’s pretty good fun to drive. The first Super 1 round hadn’t gone great, so we were just aiming to make up as much ground as we could really on the leaders. I was feeling quite confident, but equally you know it’s never going to be easy. Every weekend in the series is different.”

Indeed, with a hotly-contested, 36-strong KF3 class field populated by the likes of defending British Champion Jake Dennis, Red Bull-backed European star Alex Albon, 2008 British Mini Max Champion Callum Bowyer and Ultimate Motorsport front-runner Macaulay Walsh, securing a strong result was going to be no mean feat.
What’s more, handling woes and a down-on-power engine around one of the most power-dependent tracks in the country put Jordan onto the back foot right from the word ‘go’, so fifth spot in qualifying, less than two tenths of a second shy of pole position, was a laudable effort.

“I’d thought we’d be able to do quite well on new tyres in qualifying,” he explained, “but I only actually got one flying lap before the carb went down. I reckon if we’d been able to do a couple more flying laps we could have done a bit better, but I was quite happy with fifth in the circumstances, and it proved that we had the pace.”

The heat races would subsequently yield a brace of solid results, though the Harbury ace was not truly on the leading pace in either. A bright start to the first of them saw him run an encouraging third for the opening five laps, but his lack of grunt from the engine would eventually prove telling as he powerlessly slipped back to sixth at the chequered flag. He would add to that with fourth place in heat two, earning him sixth spot on the grid for the first of the two all-important finals – from where he was forced to revise his objectives to aim simply for a couple of top ten finishes.

“The kart was sliding around a lot and we were still struggling for power from the engine,” Jordan recounted of his difficulties in the heats. “Over a single lap we were alright, but over a full race distance we just couldn’t keep up. I wasn’t happy with the results, but they were the best we could do with what we had.

“In the first final again we couldn’t really stay with the leaders and ended up seventh. The second final got red-flagged twice, but at the second re-start I just kept everything steady and managed to come home sixth.”

Now fifth in the drivers’ standings, a mere four points shy of third, Jordan recognised that he had extracted the maximum from a bad weekend – and as an exercise in damage limitation his performance was faultless. Following a well-deserved break, he heads next to Rowrah in Cumbria – a tortuous and challenging track where the Repton School pupil has an impressive résumé, having taken a win and a second place there in Super 1 last year.

“It was pleasing to score some good points towards the championship and to close up on some of the drivers ahead of me,” he summarised of his Shenington outing. “The championship is still very open; I’m only 32 points behind the leader, so if he has a bad round at Rowrah and I have two good finals, I can easily catch up again.”

The Western Region qualifying round for the high-profile one-off meeting – designed to whittle the initial field of 176 entrants from all across Europe down to an altogether more manageable 81 for the main event in mid-summer – took place at Angerville in northern France, a circuit that up until a fortnight beforehand, Jordan had never so much as set eyes upon. He soon got down to business.
“We tested there to play around with set-up and concentrate on learning the track so that we had a solid starting point for the race weekend,” he explained. “It’s quite tight and twisty, but somewhere that you still need a lot of power from the engine. We were quick in testing, but the problem was we didn’t know if we were quick compared to the others because we were the only ones there.”

‘The others’ comprised the very crème de la crème of the KF3 class from the UK, France, Spain, Switzerland and Portugal, including drivers of the calibre of Gerard Barrabeig, Carlos Sainz Jnr – son of twice World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz – and fellow leading Brits Alex Albon and reigning British Champion Jake Dennis, as well as a number of drivers against whom Jordan had never previously competed.

Despite his comparative lack of experience on the European stage – with still barely a handful of outings under his belt in the hotly-contested WSK International Series – the 15-year-old is rapidly crafting himself a burgeoning reputation and marking himself out as a regular podium contender, and he entered the qualification round confident of being able to hold his own in such exalted company.
“We weren’t bang on the leading pace in practice,” he recounted. “The track conditions had changed quite a bit since testing when we had been so fast and the kart had felt really good. Now it was sliding around a lot – all of the Maranellos were struggling – which left us a couple of tenths off and I had to try and drive around that.

“In qualifying the kart still didn’t feel great even on new tyres and we didn’t have any real pace. Other drivers were just managing to pull away from me, and we knew we were not where we should have been at all. My racecraft has always been strong, though, so I was confident we would be able to actually compete more in the races and that I could pull it back a bit in the heats and finals.”

In such a closely-packed, 54-strong field, a mere half a second off the top spot in qualifying equated to a lowly 29th position for the Harbury ace, and left him to start each of his four heat races from 12th. From there he would wisely concentrate on scoring good points throughout, well aware of the value of consistency in a competition in which just one DNF could mean game over.

With no repêchage (second chance heat) to fall back on this time, seeing the chequered flag was the number one priority, and there were inevitably some big-name casualties along the way as the entire pack duelled over the 34 places available in the two finals. An excellent second place in heat one set Jordan up well, and three further top ten finishes saw him comfortably through.
“I got quite a good start in the first heat and picked off a few drivers in front of me,” he related, “and after that there was a fairly big fight ahead. I got onto the back of the group and managed to get the better of all of them. That was a good confidence boost, but whilst we were a bit closer to the pace we still weren’t close enough.

“Given that the European Championship is a one-off event, this weekend was all about making sure we qualified, though, and after three solid results in my first three heats that definitely took the pressure off a bit for the last of them. I knew there were quite a few other drivers having to fight simply to get into the finals, which resulted in carnage in some of the races with people pushing so hard just to make it through.”

Twelfth on the grid once again for the first final, whilst he acknowledged that a mid-pack position meant ‘there’s always a chance things can go wrong’, Jordan fought hard to recover from a scrappy opening couple of laps that dropped him down to the foot of the top 20 to reclaim his starting position at the close.
“With 12th place I knew we were already pretty much safe,” the Repton School pupil acknowledged, “as long as we got around the first corner in the second final. That took the pressure off again and meant I no longer had to play it safe – obviously I wasn’t going to risk doing anything stupid, but I certainly wasn’t intending on taking it easy either. I was just aiming to go out there and do the best I could.”

Indeed, he would do rather more than merely make it around the first corner in the second final, timing his getaway to perfection when the lights went out to vault up into fifth – where he would remain all the way to the chequered flag, setting a fastest lap on a par with those of the leaders but unable to quite match the consistency of the four drivers ahead of him at the close.
Still, the result secured Jordan a superb sixth position in the overall rankings – second highest-placed of the ten Brits in attendance. As he now switches his attentions to the main championship at Zuera in Spain in mid-July – a track that, by dint of its sweeping nature, is practically the polar opposite of Angerville and will therefore challenge drivers with a true test of their mettle at both extremes – he does so in confident mood, having twice mounted the rostrum on his only previous appearance there, scene of his JRP Maranello debut back in October.

“That was my first real race abroad and only my second time out in KF3, so to go there for the first time and come away with two podiums in the Spanish Championship was pretty good, I thought,” he concluded. “Zuera is fast and flowing and at one stage you’re flat-out for about seven seconds, which compared to many tracks is a long time.

“It’s a one-off event, so whilst a top three finish for my first time in the European Championship would be good, there’s only one aim really – we’re going there to win.”

Having been shunted from pillar to post in his first two European outings of the year and been left with broken fingers from a start-line pile-up at PF International, Jordan rebounded in fine style at the southern Italian circuit – as he overcame missing the fastest part of timed qualifying and suffering a bent stub axle and down-on-power engine in his opening two heat races to stake his claim as a true title contender.

“Sarno is a really good track,” the 15-year-old enthused, “very fast and flowing, with some good overtaking opportunities too. It really chucked it down for the first two days, but we were quick in the wet so we were pretty happy with that.

“We weren’t really thinking about what we were aiming for; we were just trying to do our best and be as fast as we could. Deep down I’m always aiming to win, though, so we were working towards that.

“For the whole of qualifying we were in the top three, but we weren’t out at the right time at the end when the track was at its driest and everybody else went faster. That dropped us down to ninth place in the group, but we knew we were quick, so I was still pretty happy with things.

“With the engine problem, though, I just didn’t have the power to get anywhere in the heats on the Saturday. I couldn’t close on other drivers; when we were chasing it was alright, but as soon as we got into traffic we couldn’t make any progress because we didn’t have the power to get past them. I wasn’t happy with the results, but equally I knew we weren’t a million miles away and we just needed to find something overnight.”

With just two borderline top ten finishes to his name for his efforts, there would be, indeed, considerable burning of the midnight oil by Jordan’s loyal mechanic Stuart Wright and his JRP team on Saturday night, but with a new engine in the back of his Maranello mount come Sunday morning, the Harbury ace was suddenly in the ballpark once more – and firmly in with a shout.

After storming to a third place and a win in his remaining two heats, the reigning British Mini Max Vice-Champion placed eighth on the grid for the first final out of the 76 competitors present – and from there he would survive a ‘fully sideways’ moment on the opening lap to seal his breakthrough WSK victory, at last securing the result to match his undoubted pace and potential.

“In the morning warm-up we were still down on power a bit, but overall we were a lot closer to the pace,” he recounted. “By the first heat of the day we were pretty much there, and in the next one we were really rocking! I did get a little bit lucky because there was a crash in front of me both times which I managed to avoid, but it was satisfying to be able to fight my way to the front – and we proved we had the speed to stay there too.

“Some of the drivers who were in front of me on the pre-final grid I hadn’t really raced against before, so I didn’t know what pace they had – but I knew we were quick enough to win. At the start the people further down the grid just kept their foot in and I was fully sideways through the first corner, but I managed to hold it together and I came out of the second corner in second place, with a gap ahead to the leader.

“I closed that gap down and managed to overtake him, and as I was going past his engine seized. That left me with quite a good margin over the others, and I just kept it steady from there really. I had known I was capable of winning, but I hadn’t really expected to anymore after the first two heats when we were struggling so much for power. It was an awesome result, really amazing; last year I was winning finals in Super 1, and now I’m winning finals in WSK!”

Confessing to being ‘pretty relaxed’ before the grand final, Jordan went on to lead the first five laps before unfortunately coming off worst in a fraught seven-way scrap for the top spot after making a tiny error that, he acknowledged, proved costly indeed. By his own admission still getting used to his new surroundings – and there is no substitute for experience at such a high level – it was a valuable lesson to learn.

“I didn’t really have any particular pressure on me,” he mused, “so I was just going out there to try and do the double. Everything felt under control and I was pretty happy with the whole situation, but then Gerard Barrabeig lunged past me and Danil Kyvat got by too. That left me third, and after that I was probably pushing a bit too hard and hit a kerb, which dropped me back even further. It was just a small mistake, but everyone took advantage.

“In Britain the racing isn’t quite so close – there are bigger gaps between the fast drivers and the slower ones, and if you make a mistake you’ll lose maybe two or three places. In Europe everybody is quick, and that same mistake can cost you ten positions.”

Indeed, the calibre in the bumper WSK KF3 field may be a whole different level to anything Jordan has known before, but on the weekend where it all finally clicked and he truly arrived on the European scene – having already notched up a second and a third place on one-off appearances towards the end of last year – the Repton School pupil showed his rivals that he fully intends to be a force to be reckoned with for the duration of 2009.

“People I hadn’t really spoken to before were coming up to me afterwards and saying ‘well done’,” he reflected. “I was frustrated with what had happened in the grand final, but on the positive side we were bang on the pace and I’m just putting that down to experience. People are definitely starting to notice me and look out for me – everyone knows what I’m capable of now.”

Photo by Greg Heirmann