Lennox-Lamb’s European campaign comes together

Jordon Lennox-Lamb’s stirring performance in the qualifying round ahead of the CIK-FIA European KF3 Championships has done more than merely secure him a place in the prestigious meeting in September – it may also have guaranteed his future for the next couple of seasons.

After his scene-stealing performance at Essay in France, Top Kart were so impressed they invited the Bedford ace to take part in the final round of the Italian Open Masters series at Val Vibrata in the Abruzzo. With 90 drivers competing for only 34 qualifying places for the two finals, it was a weekend that was not without its dramas.

“It was my first time ever racing in Italy and I really enjoyed it,” Jordon said. “It was a totally different experience to all the other European races I’d done before. It’s a much bigger sport over there than in Britain too, with very big crowds.

“The team said they were some of the roughest races they had seen in a while! There was quite a lot of bashing and rubbing of bodywork going on – because it was the last round of the championship I think there was a bit of a sense of people knocking off who they needed to.”

Although it did not take him long to get a grip on the circuit – one he likened to PFi in Lincolnshire in its layout – an electrical problem did hold Jordon back throughout timed practice, leaving him to start outside the top 20 and facing a substantial mountain to climb in all three of his heats.

To his immense credit, he survived an opening lap melee in one of the races to clinch a brace of impressive top six finishes, and was comfortably the quickest driver on the track in heat two. Given those results, he was understandably disappointed to have to begin the first final down in 22nd place, in close company with team-mate and recently-signed McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme member Oliver Rowland.

“At the first corner there was a massive crash,” the 15-year-old explained. “Olly went in pretty hard, got sideways, was hit and slowly rolled over ending up upside-down. I went into all of it and was just stuck. Olly’s kart was on top of mine and I couldn’t get out of there. I got out and pushed his kart upright again and made sure he was ok and that everyone could get through. After that I had to contend with a bent track rod for the rest of the race.

“In the second final Olly and I were coming through the pack together and I was up to twelfth place. I let him past me when he seemed to be a bit quicker and just followed him round, then got ahead again only for him to fire me off on the very last lap which I was a bit annoyed about. I think maybe he didn’t really want a report going back to McLaren saying he’d been beaten by his team-mate!”

With the next stop on his whirlwind schedule a testing session at Sarno in Italy – scene of the European Finals in just under a month’s time – Jordon is now looking forward to a successful future with Top Kart, with the team showing significant interest in signing him to a two-year European deal in KF2 and, should that go well, KF1.

“Top Kart are a very good team,” he enthused, “with a lot of history and knowledge there. It’s a real career boost for me.”

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