Jordan King came agonisingly close to triumphing in one of the most prestigious events on the Karting calendar – and though he eventually had to settle for the bottom step of the rostrum instead, he had nevertheless been able once more to demonstrate his devastating pace.
The young Harbury ace – a regular front-runner in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow, the same series that first set none other than a certain Lewis Hamilton on the fast track to future Formula 1 glory – warmed up for his latest outing by participating in a two-day fitness training course at Bath University.
“It was all about measuring my fitness and to design an exercise regime for me for the next couple of years,” he related. “There was a lot more technology there than I had thought there would be, and it was quite exciting trying out the various exercises. It was certainly an eye-opener, and well worth going.”
From there Jordan headed to Clay Pigeon for the ‘0’ Plate meeting, with the winner gaining the honour of being able to carry the coveted number ‘0’ on their kart for the remainder of the year. The 14-year-old arrived at the Dorset circuit in high spirits and with a strong record there, having stormed to pole position during the pre-season shakedown back in February and to victory three weeks later in the opening round of the national Super 1 Championship – and with firm intentions of finishing considerably higher up the order than he had done in the 2007 ‘0’ Plate, when he took the chequered flag ninth at Whilton Mill.
First, second and third place finishes in his opening three heats – from distinctly lowly grid positions in two of them and with fastest lap in the latter to boot – marked an encouraging way to begin, but then matters took a turn for the worse.
“It’s the biggest one-off event of the year and most of the top runners were there,” he explained of the 18-strong, quality-rather-than-quantity Mini Max field, “and I wanted to win it a lot! In practice we were really quick, which was a good start.
“The first three heats were good, and we were looking to be on pole quite comfortably for the pre-final, but then the battery went down in the fourth heat; it just cut out on-track completely without warning whilst I was battling up there in the top three again, which meant I didn’t finish that one.
“Then in the last heat it started to rain halfway through and I came off. After that I was too far behind to catch the others up, so I just went around slowly so as not to risk doing any damage to the kart.”
Indeed, on the subject of damage, Jordan’s challenge was hardly aided by having had to change chassis from his habitual Tonykart mount to a Kosmic between practice and the races, after encountering problems going over the kerbs, but beginning the pre-final in fifth, he knew his chances were far from over.
“I still felt ok about it,” the Repton Grammar School pupil asserted, “because we knew we were fast. I knew if I could just stay with the top three runners I would be fine. After several laps I got into the lead, pulled out a bit of a gap and just maintained that.
“I did have a slight scare going into the last corner on the last lap when the kart bounced a bit and I had to slow right down, but I wasn’t too worried because I knew Callum Bowyer behind me wouldn’t do anything stupid coming across the line.”
That performance – taking the chequered flag a scant tenth of a second to the good – earned Jordan the advantageous pole spot for the all-important grand final and, for a while at least, he looked like making it cause for a double celebration.
“I got into the lead from the start,” he recounted, “and after we had swapped places for the first eight laps or so the kart began to come on. That allowed me to pull away by about eight kart-lengths, but then I made a mistake which left me in a vulnerable position, as a chain reaction from that led to worse things happening and I lost out.
“Going round a long right-hander I ran a bit wide and fell to the back of the leading pack, before there was a crash right in front of me. I had to slow right down to avoid it, which meant I consequently lost touch with Callum and Louise Richardson.”
Ultimately coming home third, whilst a podium finish may ordinarily be reason for cheer, given his burgeoning reputation as one of the UK’s very finest young motorsport talents, and the fact that he and Bowyer had proven to be in a class of their own throughout the weekend, Jordan knew a better result had slipped through his fingers.
“I was really gutted,” he reflected, nonetheless taking the trouble to thank his mechanic Stuart Wright for all his hard work. “I wasn’t nervous beforehand; in fact I was actually quite chilled out. When I was in the lead of the final I think I was perhaps just trying a little bit too hard. I had the pace to win it…”
Action shots courtesy of Chris Walker / Kartpix.net
Portrait courtesy of Graham Smith / TSR Productions
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