Revved-up Jordon on-track for European success

Upcoming young karting star Jordon Lennox-Lamb has been proving his mettle on the international stage, with a stirring performance in the knock-out qualifying round ahead of the prestigious CIK-FIA European KF3 Championships that saw him outpace a driver who has been tipped to be the next Lewis Hamilton.

The Bedford ace headed to the demanding Essay circuit in France for his latest challenge, and with some 63 drivers from six countries competing for just 34 places he knew the outing would provide a stern test of his ability. It was one he passed with flying colours.

“I did the European qualifiers last year,” Jordon said, “but it was just me and my dad and we missed some things; we didn’t really know the proper way to go about it all. This time we were with Top Kart and we went there for a day testing beforehand to get to grips with the track.

“It’s a good circuit, with pretty much every type of corner you can think of and it’s a long with a lot of overtaking opportunities. A lot of drivers struggled with the set-up, because if you set it up right for certain corners it won’t work around others. You can never get the kart spot-on there – it has to be a compromise.”

Racing under the Comer banner, Jordon set the 20th-best time in practice as he played himself in, and went onto notch up third, sixth and tenth positions in the three heats to leave him a strong twelfth on the grid for the opening final, the fifth-quickest of the 14-strong Brit contingent.

His performance come the race – when he charged through to sixth position at the chequered flag, just over three seconds shy of victory and setting fastest lap along the way in a field that included reigning British Junior Karting Champion Jack Harvey, recently-signed McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme member Oliver Rowland and the cream of the European crop – belied what had befallen him prior to the start.

“I had eaten mussels the night before,” Jordon explained, “and just before the first final I started to feel a bit funny and was sick everywhere in parc ferme. I quickly sorted myself out though.

“It was pretty hard, but the most competitive drivers were the other British ones – you can’t fault any of them. It’s all about saving your tyres when you race abroad, because you can wear them out so quickly. I just held back and then really went for it a couple of laps from the end.”

The ‘overtaking opportunities’ to which he earlier referred would prove of pivotal importance in the second final, when the 15-year-old almost saw all his efforts come undone within seconds of the lights going out.

“I started sixth and was aiming to win given how quick I had been in the first one,” he asserted, “but I got hit and sent wide in the first corner and off the track. That put me down to I think tenth or eleventh place, and I had to work my way back up again. The top seven were all lapping within a tenth of each other, and it’s so difficult to catch someone when the times are that close.”

To climb his way back up the order into sixth spot once more at the close, a mere 1.6 seconds adrift of Rowland, was a superb effort and one that has comfortably seen him through to the all-important finale at Sarno in Italy on September 2. Although it is a circuit Jordon has yet to encounter, on his French form you would have to say he will be very much in the fight for the most coveted European karting honour of them all.

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