King rolls with the punches and comes out fighting

Jordan King may not have enjoyed the best of fortunes in his most recent two national karting outings, but he is still atop the drivers’ standings in one of them – and fighting fit ahead of the remainder of the campaign.

The young Harbury ace travelled to Shenington in Oxfordshire leading the Super 1 Mini Max title chase, and though he may have left again with an even greater advantage, it was not the most straightforward of weekends.

“We were quite quick in Friday practice,” he recounted, “but by Saturday we had lost a little bit. We couldn’t find out what the problem was, before we realised it was the battery.”

That being the case, qualifying third in his group was no mean feat, but that would only convert to eighth and seventh on the starting grids for the two heat races as the other group was able to qualify in entirely dry conditions, whereas the surface when Jordan had been out on-track was still drying. That, though, was the least of the Xtreme Racing star’s worries…

“There were three inches of snow on the track on the Sunday morning,” he explained. “They were going round brushing it all away, but by driving cars round the track they were actually slushing it up and just making it worse. No one thought the meeting would carry on, but it did.

“I was third in the first heat – we were still lacking a little bit but were just about quick enough – and then had another battery go down during the second heat. That meant I lost all power and finished fifth.

“I ended up qualifying fifth for the pre-final. They then cancelled the two finals due to darkness so we never had the opportunity to make up any more ground, but because I had qualified near to the front it wasn’t as bad as it could have been…

“Had we been able to race in the final, I think we could probably have won it, or finished in the top two at least. It was disappointing, but we still extended our championship lead.”

That much is true, and Jordan would find himself in for another challenging weekend in the opening meeting on the 2008 BRDC Stars of Tomorrow calendar – the same series that first set a certain Lewis Hamilton on the fast track to future Formula 1 glory. Three solid top ten finishes in a capacity field of some 50 drivers on the Saturday were spoiled when a ten-second penalty relegated the Repton School pupil from fifth to 16th in heat three, worse still dropping him from 10th to 19th on the grid for the all-important final.

A gutsy, committed performance there would at least salvage ninth place, whilst a brace of top six finishes in the heat races on the Sunday were accompanied by a 22nd, and a disastrous final left him to reflect on a weekend that had yielded a handful of strong results – but ultimately precious little consistency.

“We just struggled all the way through,” Jordan confessed. “On the Friday the kart didn’t feel too good and we didn’t quite have the pace, and it was the same on the Saturday. On the Sunday it was good at the start of the races and in the first couple of laps when everyone was on cold tyres and I was able to come through the pack, but as soon as things settled down again we went backwards.

“When I started second on the grid I managed to stay in the lead for quite a bit, but as soon as people got past me they just went away. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t have the pace, but it wasn’t really a big blow. We had a few good heats and a ninth position in the final on the Saturday, so it wasn’t all bad in the end.”

As he now looks ahead to the next Stars’ round at the challenging Rowrah circuit up in Cumbria towards the end of May, the 14-year-old is in confident and relaxed spirits, with drivers able to drop six heats and two finals of their choice at season’s end, to make up the final points table.

“I like Rowrah,” he concluded, “but last time we weren’t that quick there. I’m hoping it will be a different story this time…”

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