News - Formula BMW Rounds 9 and 10 Oulton Park

Last weekend was the 9th and 10th rounds of the championship at Oulton Park. After a massive accident in Friday practice, Jordan had to really get on with the job with little experience of the very tricky Cheshire circuit. In the afternoon session on the Friday Jordan had a big impact into the tyre wall at the first corner. Jordan was experimenting with a wider line into the corner when a small rain shower caught out the Tavistock youngster. Jordan walked away from the incident shaken but not stirred ‘like a bond martini' as the Formula BMW FB02 car did its job by protecting him. The car was very severely damaged with most of the rear of the car in tatters.

The Team Loctite crew then worked tirelessly for 12 hours throughout the night to allow Jordan to race on the Saturday and Sunday. Replacing the engine, gearbox and all the running gear on the rear end, the car was completely rebuilt and without the tremendous work off all the team Jordan wouldn't have been racing. Jordan started qualifying on Saturday morning a little apprehensive of making any more mistakes and this showed as he only managed to secure 14 th place on the grid for the first race. The second qualifying session was much better with Jordan piecing together a better lap. Qualifying in 9 th place, his best qualifying position so far, and being very quick in some sectors around the lap showed Jordan that the pace was there for him to take a good result this weekend. Round 9 took place on the Saturday at Oulton park shortly after the second qualifying session.

Jordan had a very strong run to finish in 7th place, gaining 7 places, his best finish so far. The race was stopped after only ten laps which stopped Jordan from possibly scoring his first top six finish as the youngster was right on the back of the 5th and 6th place drivers. In the race Jordan was very quick, setting fastest sector times at some points and gaining 4th fastest lap overall in the race. It was clear that again Jordan's race pace was very good and this gave him a massive confidence boost for the rest of the weekend. The second race on Sunday was a rather wet affair. Starting 9th on the grid Jordan was still confident of a good finish to add to his 7th place in the first race.

Having never raced in the wet and only having ever driven the car once in the rain Jordan said: “I have to admit I was rather nervous about the race, Oulton is such a tricky circuit and because of all the cambers I did not know any of the wet lines and I had no time to find them out!” Jordan had a brilliant start with minimum wheel spin and was up to 4th place in the opening laps. On lap 4 Jordan was still in a very strong 5th place on the back of the lead back who had pulled out a gap to the rest of the drivers. Going into the first corner for the 4th time another competitor attempted to overtake Jordan round the outside, and after Jordan giving him as much room as he could to make sure they both stayed on, proceeded to then turn in on Jordan in the middle of the corner. The two touched wheels and both spun in perfect synchronisation.

This ultimately ruined Jordan's race as he dropped down outside of the top ten into 11th place then finally finishing in 10 th place. Jordan said: “What could have been an absolutely fantastic weekend was rather dampened by the incident, but nevertheless I am ecstatic that the car is finally very fast, I have had my best finish so far and could have had a brilliant top 6 in the second race. I now will just push on from here and I think Donington will be a very strong race for me and the team. My thanks go to Trevor Powell, my mechanic James, my friend Matt Ford and the rest of the team for all getting stuck in to fix the car on Friday which allowed me to race the rest of the weekend.”

The next chapter of the Formula BMW UK season will continue at Donington Park on the 14th and 15th July.