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Jordan King overcame a very literal ‘bum deal’ in his latest outing in round four of seven on the 2009 Super 1 Series calendar at Whilton Mill, grabbing two strong points-scoring finishes to keep himself firmly in the title hunt and set himself up in style for a challenge on European honours this weekend.

Having triumphed at Whilton in Formula Kart Stars last year, Jordan headed to the Northants track with high hopes of replicating that form in fellow national series Super 1, but handling woes throughout the weekend consigned him to just sixth place in qualifying in the 36-strong, hotly-contested KF3 field, albeit in the circumstances about the best he could have hoped for.

The crux of the problem was that his Maranello chassis is designed to perform at its peak in Europe, where the weather is invariably hotter and the circuits consequently somewhat grippier. In the colder climes of Britain, by contrast, it tends to encounter more difficulties, leaving Jordan a shade under four tenths of a second adrift of the outright pace in qualifying.

“Whilton is a bit bumpy,” he related, “but the layout is good since they changed it; it’s quite technical and challenging, and a fun track to drive. Practice and qualifying were difficult, though – we were struggling with the kart, and just couldn’t get it to work at all. It was sliding everywhere; we’ve always had that with the Maranello chassis in the UK, but for some reason this weekend it was worse than usual.

“I got a decent start in both of my heat races, though, and then just managed to stay where I was pretty much. In the second one we were a lot closer to the pace, but we were still struggling a lot with the kart. I was running third, but then on the last lap I got passed by three other people; Jake Dennis ahead of me was defending second place, which meant I had to defend too, but I had a train of drivers behind me and going through one of the corners someone got up the inside and forced me out wide, which allowed two others through as well. I couldn’t really do a lot about it.”

Nonetheless, fourth and sixth positions represented a solid showing, and earned the Harbury ace a top six starting spot for the first of the all-important finals. On both occasions he would come within barely a whisker of a rostrum finish, setting a better fastest lap time than his third-placed rival into the bargain.

“In the pre-final I got up to third and was able to stay there,” the 15-year-old recounted, “but then with six laps to go Guilherme Silva came past me. It didn’t help that the bottom of my seat fell out halfway through the race; that had never happened to me before, and I had to lean out of the kart to stop my bum from dragging on the ground! It didn’t cost me a massive amount of time and I don’t think we would have had a chance of getting third back again anyway because we were still sliding around a lot, but it did hurt a bit! I was reasonably satisfied with fourth given the issues we had.

“If the kart had been a bit better for the grand final I was hoping we might be able to finish second. I got up to that position at the start, but then they red-flagged the race two laps in; I didn’t get away quite so well when they re-started it, and I was still fourth when it was red-flagged again. Because 16 laps had been completed by then, it was enough to be able to count it as a race distance. I don’t think we would have been able to get a podium either way, though; I might have been able to get third, but it was looking unlikely to be honest.

“I was happy with two fourth places, because it showed consistency again, but we had been looking for a win. I’ve not had a win in Super 1 yet this year – my highest finish has been third – but we’ve had the best consistency of pretty much anyone I think.”

At the end of the day, indeed, it is consistency that wins championships, and with almost half the season remaining – with rounds at Nutts Corner, Larkhall and Fulbeck still to go – Jordan sits a threatening third in the chase for the coveted crown, behind only Red Bull-backed Alexander Albon and defending British KF3 Champion Dennis. All is still to play for, but before that the Repton School pupil has another challenge on his mind, as he heads to Zuera in Spain in a bid to lift the laurels in the prestigious, one-off CK-FIA European Championship.

Having comfortably advanced through the qualifying meeting at Angerville in France in sixth place – as 95 of his 180 adversaries, Albon and fellow British front-runner Sennan Fielding included, failed to make the cut – Jordan knows he has a fighting chance of gunning for glory, but he also acknowledges that the competition will likely be amongst the fiercest he has ever faced.

Having made his debut both for JRP Maranello and in the KF3 class at Zuera towards the end of last year, and having since firmly established himself as the leading UK representative at that level in Europe, there is little the reigning British Mini Max Vice-Champion would like more than to celebrate his Spanish return with his breakthrough major international victory. After coming close on a number of recent occasions in the WSK International Series – being notably unlucky last time out at Genk in Belgium, as he battled back from a first corner knock to snatch third place at the chequered flag, proving himself to be the quickest driver on the track by more than a second along the way – the top step of the podium is now surely overdue.

“Zuera is a really fast track and definitely one that I enjoy,” he enthused. “It will be as tough as WSK if not harder, because most of the top drivers got through qualifying okay. Everything has got to be right, but if all goes well I think I can hopefully fight for the win.”