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He may never have seen the track before, he may have been out of action for two months following a double injury blow and he may have competed in his new class on just five occasions – but still all of that failed to prevent Jordan King from showing his WSK International Series rivals that he will be a serious force to be reckoned with in 2009.

Jordan travelled to the southern Italian circuit of La Conca for the official WSK pre-season test, accompanied by 53 of his KF3 class rivals, ahead of his debut in the hotly-contested championship at the same venue. Despite having been sidelined for much of the winter with a broken collarbone and then – when he did return to the fray – broken fingers, the Warwickshire star had been buoyed by a strong test at PF International the previous weekend, and was well aware of the importance of his European bow.

“It was really good,” he enthused. “It was my first time at the track, so obviously it was all new to me, but it went very well. I liked the circuit; it’s quite fast, but it has some technical sections too. It’s quite a long track, and we were averaging about 95km/h…

“I was on it from pretty much the first session, and we hardly dropped out of the top five at all. We were just trying all sorts of different things on the kart, and given the first round of the WSK will be held there too it was important to get to know everything. You don’t get a lot of practice time during the actual race weekend, so if we had just gone there without testing beforehand we would have been on the back foot.”

Whilst acknowledging that the step-up from the Mini Max class – in which he finished the 2008 campaign as British Vice-Champion – to KF3 has been a significant one, Jordan is clearly fast getting to grips with the new, Maxter-powered Maranello mount he will be driving for independent outfit JRP this year. What’s more, he refused to let the illustrious reputations of such as defending WSK KF3 Champion Nyck de Vries, fellow Brit Alexander Albon, reigning BRDC Stars of Tomorrow title-winner Jake Dennis and the son of rally legend Carlos Sainz, Carlos Sainz Jnr, knock him off his stride.

Fourth and third-quickest respectively in his first two sessions out on-track, the 14-year-old would wind up in the top half dozen on six occasions out of nine, turning heads within the paddock with his awesome pace and flawless composure in what is undoubtedly the highest-pressure environment he has encountered in his burgeoning career to-date.

“All the top guys were there,” he reflected, “but I hadn’t really known who would be quickest – I just knew they would all be fast! All the professional works teams were there too – TonyKart had two awnings! – and the number of trucks was just outrageous.

“I went there as an unknown, but by the end of the test people were watching us. I don’t think the established drivers and teams had expected us to be that quick; we took them a bit by surprise.”

That much is no idle boast, and in ending the test fourth-fastest outright – trading lap times nip-and-tuck with de Vries – the Harbury ace laid down a marker that whilst he may still be on a learning curve in 2009 and still trailing much of the opposition in terms of experience both in Europe and in KF3, he firmly intends to trade blow-for-blow with them out on the circuit, and is emphatically not going into this merely to make up the numbers. As a pre-season confidence boost following all of his enforced time out of the seat, it could barely have been more timely.

“We know we’re fast enough now,” Jordan asserted. “You have to drive more smoothly in Europe; you can’t throw the kart about as much. At the beginning I was throwing it about a bit too much, but it’s something you soon get used to.

“The racing will be harder I’m sure, and a lot more physical, but I’ve had enough time getting used to both the kart and the class now so I feel ready and prepared for it.

“I’d say my chances are as good as anyone else’s. In the opening round I’m just hoping to get into the first of the two finals really. I don’t want to set the standard too high to start off with or put too much pressure on myself; I just want to do the best job I can and try to get some points, which you get for finishing inside the top 15. I’m still going to be learning, don’t forget – you’re always learning – but I’ll be going all-out at the same time to try to win.”

Undeniably at the top of his game, having taken his rivals by surprise in testing the Repton School pupil now plans on doing the same once the truly competitive action gets underway too. His mechanic Stuart Wright is confident he can do so.

“I thought we would be fast,” he summarised, “but I didn’t know we would be that quick. It’s very exciting for when we go back there for the first round – hopefully we will return again with a very good result.”

Photo by Chris Walker