Lennox-Lamb impresses in cars as well as karts

Jordon Lennox-Lamb has been proving his versatility as a racer of late, by jumping out of his 80mph kart into a 1.4-litre closed-top Ginetta sportscar – and remaining right on the leading pace in both.

The young Bedford ace headed to the final two meetings on the Super 1 calendar – at Warden Law near Sunderland and Clay Pigeon in Dorset – bidding for a top three end-of-season championship placing, but his first British outing on the Top Kart chassis he races on the continent did not go entirely according to plan.

“We were very quick in practice on the Friday,” Jordon recounted, “but after that we suffered engine problems throughout the weekend. I would be really fast through the infield and catching everyone up, but then every time we got onto the straights there was nothing I could do. We were just scratching our heads and changing everything on the kart, but nothing made any difference.”

Twelfth spot in timed qualifying was converted into a brace of top ten finishes come the finals, but that was not what the former BRDC Stars of Tomorrow leading light had been looking for and, he admitted, it put him under considerably more pressure to get everything right at Clay Pigeon.

“We were very quick in the dry at Clay,” he continued, “but in the wet we had problems again and were struggling. All the big teams had people standing around at different points of the circuit seeing how wet or dry it was, but it was just me and my dad and I found it hard to make the right choices. We got it right in the first final, but we didn’t have the European bumper on in the second final, and without that the kart really doesn’t work.”

Still, fourth and seventh-placed finishes were nothing to be sniffed at under the circumstances, and on the back of that Jordon headed to Monte Carlo for the prestigious annual Monaco Kart Cup. On his first visit to the Principality, the KF3 front-runner did a recce of the tight and twisty circuit upon his arrival to get an idea of just what he would be up against.

“Lap after lap you’ve got to be 100 per cent,” he asserted. “You can’t make a single mistake or else you will touch the barrier.”

An ECU problem in qualifying restricted the 15-year-old to a lowly 19th position in the 36-kart field, but he had fought his way up into sixth place in the opening heat when the cylinder head blew off, and was classified eighth in heat two despite a somewhat unconventional finish.

“On the last lap I went up the inside of Mitchell Hale,” he explained, “but he turned across and snapped my trackrod. Max Goff then came up my inside into the chicane but I couldn’t turn any more, which meant we had a really big coming-together.

“I still easily made it through to the final, but round that track when you start from the back it’s really hard to get through because there are so few overtaking opportunities. I got up into tenth from 13th, but then when I came around Rascasse there was suddenly a big traffic jam ahead of me. I had nowhere to go and went straight into it, which bent the kart. I managed to get going again and worked my way onto the back of the pack with the black-and-yellow flags out, but the kart was too badly-damaged to keep going round and I had to come in.”

It was a disappointing outcome to a weekend that had promised rather more, but now Jordon’s attentions have shifted to his final 2007 outing in the Playstation Ginetta Junior Championship at Brands Hatch on 27-28 October, after returning to the sportscar series for the first time in more than three months around the Kent circuit’s Indy layout earlier this month.

“To start off with I was just getting back used to it all,” the Hepworth International star said, “to the team and how everything works. It wasn’t too difficult to re-adjust; I was still making the odd mistake here and there as I got back used to the feel of the car again, but by the third session we weren’t too far off. I was certainly a lot fitter than I had been back at the start of the season – because it’s a closed cockpit I really struggled with the heat initially, but now I can just focus a lot more.

“It’s a very good track to drive, though I was really surprised how steep the drop is after the first corner – it doesn’t look that steep on the TV! In the first race I was up to eighth from 16th on the grid but then there was a really big crash with one of the drivers trapped in his car, so the red flags came out and the result was counted back a lap which put me 13th. I had just passed him at the time and the next thing I heard was a massive bang.

“In the second race I was doing really well, up into eighth again and still progressing through the field when the gearbox got stuck in fourth; we think the selector pin had gone. I just had to battle it out after that, but I managed to hold onto my place until another driver caught my rear end on the last lap and spun me round. Now I know the circuit, hopefully I will be very quick there in the final meeting. I’m aiming for the top five, but a podium would be really nice.”

Beyond that, a return to his karting roots is very much on the agenda, with a possible participation in the KF1 winter series in preparation for an all-out European assault on KF2 honours in 2008.

“I enjoy racing abroad so much,” Jordon enthused. “It’s in a different class. The first time I drove in KF2 it just clicked straight away; I was lapping as fast as some drivers in KF1, and KF2 use less powerful engines. I’m very excited about it all!”

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