Motor Sport
King of the track in New Zealand

IT MIGHT have been only his third outing Down Under, but Jordan King proved that he is nothing if not a fast learner and a prodigious young talent.

He annexed his maiden pole position in the fiercely-contested New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series at Taupo and followed up with a brilliant breakthrough victory.

Having encountered ill-fortune in the Teretonga curtain-raiser but bounced back with a well-judged podium finish second time out at Timaru, King travelled more than 500 miles from South Island to North Island to the state-of-the-art Taupo Motorsport Park.

Bullish about his prospects in the 19-strong field – the highly-rated Stoneleigh-based single-seater star then unleashed his full potential in qualifying by storming his way to the top spot on the starting grid.

He said:”I made a great start in the first race – 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds – and then began to pull out a gap, setting a new fastest lap in the process that I later discovered was also a new lap record by more than a second.

“I built up an advantage of almost three seconds, and after that I chilled out a bit; it felt so good to be quick enough to be in a position to just relax and know that I still had more time in my pocket had I needed it.

“Crossing the line to win was absolutely mega, and my team M2 Competition were so happy.”

King’s pace over the 15-lap showdown was impressive indeed, and he consolidated it with a brace of similarly eye-catching efforts that yielded fourth spot from sixth on the reverse-grid in race two, and a competitive third in race three, the 20-lap Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy in homage to the 1967 F1 World Champion.

That combination of results saw the 17-year-old BRDC Rising Star conclude the weekend as the Toyota Racing Series’ top points-scorer and vault up to sixth place in the championship points table.

King now turns his attentions towards the final two meetings at Hampton Downs and Manfeild and the Princethorpe College A-Level student does so in the knowledge he has now truly made his mark in the southern hemisphere.

King added:“One of the races at Hampton Downs will be the New Zealand Motor Cup, which has been won by some of the most famous drivers in the history of the sport. It would be awesome to add my name to that trophy.”